Objektiv, No.19

The Norwegian, biannual journal Objektiv is a gallery in journal format. It´s mission statement is to create a time-capsule on where contemporary lens-based work is today. During its five year run it has invited emerging artists to show projects that expand the medium and asked people within the field to write insightful, provocative essays on what and where this art form currently is. Objektiv feels this medium can and should be constantly challenged, and is in continuous debate on what lens-based art really means and why we need a journal for it

Objektiv strive to present the various work as best as possible, and the photographs are not just considered as complementary material to the text, quite the contrary. The focus is on the work we show and we want to give them a privileged space. For each issue we invite one or several artists to produce a work especially made and edited for Objektiv. Among the artists are Morten Andenæs, Ola Rindal, Azar Alsharif, Marthe Elise Stamrud, Preben Holst, Tori Wrånes, Ina Åsheim, Fin Serck-Hansen and Helene Sommer. The idea is to create a gallery within the magazine, and to give the artist the freedom and challenge to present their work in this format.

In this issue: 
Objektiv is celebrating its tenth year in 2019, and this year’s issues will look both backwards and forwards. For Objektiv #19, which will be presented in Arles,  we’ve asked artists who have featured in our first eighteen issues to ‘pay it forward’, so to speak, and identify a younger artist working with photography or film whom they feel deserves a larger platform. Camille Henrot, Mårten Lange, Jumana Manna, Torbjørn Rødland and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa have all chosen an artist in whom they believe: Marianna Simnett, Luo Yang, Mónica Martin Nunes, Diane Severin Nguyen and Federico Clavarino. We’ve also included another artist, Frida Orupabo, chosen by one of our editors, Lisa A. Bernhoft-Sjødin. Delphine Bedel will also present several important female photo book inventors whom we all should know more about in her essay. In our very first issues, we invited different people to write about an image they found memorable, under the headline On my Mind (Sinnbilde) a column inspired by FOAM Magazine. Now, in Objektiv’s 10th year, as the ocean of images continues to swell, we’ve reignited this column online, and we open this issue with some of the work that different artists, curators, thinkers can’t get out of their minds. We’ll present several more in our upcoming Objektiv #20, where we also give different artists carte blanche to create unique portfolios for our pages.