North is the first series of images to emerge, using the techniques I also applied in Safe Distance. This time, instead of found footage or screenshots, I used photos from my own archive as well as new photos shot specifically for this series and with this way of editing in mind.

The title, North, does not refer to a geographical locality as such, but rather to the longing for such an imaginary locality. That place somewhere over the rainbow which you know from a dream you can almost remember. The highly romantic images originate from photos taken in Scandinavia, where the forests often feel inundated by the otherness of nature.

By means of some fairly simple interventions, e.g. enhancing an element or color from within the photo and altering the proportions of the picture, the depiction transforms into pure color – pure surface – without breaking the logic and reality of the image. The photographic image reveals itself as a construction.

This way of editing fulfills a long-cherished wish of mine to find a way in which the photographic element in an image is retained , but acquires a different charge through editing that does not try to conceal itself.

Rune Peitersen