Tom Sandberg Narvik, Norway, 1953-2014

It’s hard to image light, especially the bright light of the sun, looking so soft and so gradient. The soft light on the child’s skin almost makes him seem sculptural, yet when looking intently at the photo, the child almost appears to be breathing. The child’s head fills the entire vertical space of the frame, chin touching the top edge of the photograph. The close-up of the image and formal study with light is typical of the modernist style of photography adopted by Tom Sandberg, in part, through his training with practitioners like Minor White, Thomas Joshua Cooper, and Paul Hill. It is formal studies like these by Sandberg that helped bring national attention to photography in Norway.