As a teenager in the early 1980s Norwegian photographer Morten Andersen (*1965) began taking photographs of friends in Oslo’s punk rock scene and publishing them in home-made fanzines. The literary term “dirty realism“, i.e. the unadorned, laconic, yet passionately committed portrayal of everyday occurrences “warts and all“, aptly describes Andersen’s photographic work, too. Without any academic grounding whatsoever, Andersen has steadily developed his powerful work, attending workshops by photographers such as Nan Goldin and others, and publishing numerous books.
At FOTOHOF, Andersen presents photographs from his most recent book “Untitled.Cities“ from 2013. In it, he explores the DNA of urban settlements, without identifying any specific or recognisable locations or engaging anecdotally with the character or atmosphere of a particular town or city. His untamed and expressive photos are all about the abstraction of urban structures, inscribed into which are issues of inclusion and exclusion, power struggles, and social cohesion in public spaces. All seventeen of Morten Andersen’s books are featured at the library gallery.