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Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Photographer
Terje Abusdal
Slash and burn
Gomma Photography Grant 2017 Winners

Gomma Photography Grant 2017

Slash and burn

Photographer

Terje Abusdal

Slash and burn

13 Oct, 2022

Finnskogen – directly translated as The Forest of the Finns – is a large, contiguous forest belt along the Norwegian-Swedish border, where farming families from Finland settled in the early 1600s. The immigrants – called Forest Finns – were slash-and-burn farmers. This ancient agricultural method yielded bountiful crops but required large areas of land as the soil was quickly exhausted. Population growth eventually led to a scarcity of resources in their native Finland and, fuelled by famine and war, forced a wave of migration in search for new territories. The Forest Finns’ understanding of nature was rooted in an eastern shamanistic tradition, and they are often associated with magic and mystery. Rituals, spells and symbols were used as a practical tool in daily life; that could heal and protect, or safeguard against evil. This photographic project draws on these beliefs while investigating what it means to be a Forest Finn today, in a time when the 17th century way of life is long gone, and their language is no longer spoken.

About the photographer

Terje Abusdal

 Born in Evje, Norway, in 1978, Abdusal works mainly on independent projects at the intersection between fact and fiction. In 2014 he studied Advanced Visual Storytelling at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, followed by a number of Master Classes. In 2015, Journal Forlag published his first photo book, “Radius 500 Meters”. “Slash & Burn” was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2018 and “Hope Blinds Reason” was published, again by Journal, in 2019. Appearing in a number of solo and group exhibitions, his work is largely focused on questions of identity and belonging. Abusdal lives in Oslo.