A Sense of Place

This exhibition forms part of a long-term project for Jonathan documenting life in Norway.

Part one “Vigeland” looks at the Vigelandsanlegget, a unique and permanent sculpture installation within Oslo’s Frogner Park.

Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), who designed the Nobel Peace Prize medal, is important in Norwegian art history, though little known outside Norway. His artistic work helped promote the position of sculpture in his home country.

The Vigeland Park is the world's largest sculpture park created by a single artist, exhibiting more than two hundred bronze and granite sculptures bequeathed by the artist to the city of Oslo.

The second part of this exhibition focuses on life in Oslo and the Rogaland region on Norway’s west coast.

Jonathan Patrick Smith

Born in North Wales in 1965, Smith studied Photography & Design in Surrey and went on to work as a freelance editorial photographer. Splitting his time between Norway and Wales, his focus is now on fine art and documentary photography, taking his inspiration as much from graphic design and paintings as from other photography.

He works simply with natural light, using one or two fixed focal-length lenses, often photographing his immediate surroundings: “my interests are in light and form, the subject matter is sometimes secondary”
In “Vigeland” the human figures seem alive, intense with emotion, in contrast to the cold Norwegian winter pictured here. There is a purity and innocence, showing a different side to Gustav Vigeland’s often controversial sculptures of the human form.