Under the nordic light

• Photographer
  Olaf Otto Becker, Germany
• Website
  http://www.olafottobecker.de

The photographs are part of a series of 100 photographs. A documentaion of the icelandic landscape. The landscape is built by vulcano activity, water, ice and the activities of the small amount of men on this island.

born 1959 in Travemuende
1981?89 Studied
communication design in Augsburg, specializing in photography/1989?91 Studied philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t, Munich/
Becker has exhibited widely in Europe and US. First Book Under the nordic light published by schaden.com second book "Broken"line" published in 12.12.2007 by Hatje Cantz. Having trained as a painter, Becker has transposed the patient methodology of that medium onto the instantaneity of photography. With his large format 8 x 10 camera he allows his landscapes to communicate with him, sometimes waiting for days for the conditions to be correct. When viewing his series from Greenland the result of this unique photographic style becomes apparent; Becker is not taking photographs, he is receiving and articulating the landscape. Though formally structured like the easel paintings of 19th century romanticists, Becker effectively translates the landscape as portrait, isolating the stoicism and melancholia of a land that few know and, due to climate change, few ever will.

Awards Awards
2011 Artist in residence Rossinière, Switzerland
2010 Awarded the photography prize of the Bayerischer Journalisten-Verband
2008 LeadAward
2007 Deutscher Fotobuchpreis for Broken Line
2006 Under the Nordic Light nominated for best book at Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles
Under the Nordic Light nominated for Deutscher Fotobuchpreis
Grant for the project “Broken Line” from the Kulturwerk
VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
2005 Awarded the photography prize of the Bayerischer Journalisten-Verband