The Norwegian Way - Jorn Tomter

The displaced artist often captures his homeland with sharper eyes than those stuck in the province. Examples in literature abound: Joyce (Irish exile in foie gras country), Kundera (writing up Bohemia via Paris), Garcia Marquez (Colombia as seen from the West).

And now, boys and girls, we have Norway’s Jorn Tomter, a London-based photographer who spent five years documenting the familiar as it became strange, stranger and sometimes downright odd. Packed with hundreds of images, Tomter’s The Norwegian Way documents the ‘Russ’, a three-week-long party attended by most eighteen-year-olds in Norway. This veritable countrywide booze-fest involves driving across Norway in huge buses as a last farewell bid to the joys and pains of high school life.

A photographic tribute to freedom, friendship and casual sex, book highlights include teens swimming naked in the freezing Norwegian fjords, a significant amount of drinking, the odd breast shot and a selection of stunning images that document the strangely captivating glory of youth. As they board their pimped-up cars, vans and buses and simply drive, without purpose or destination, Norway’s teens embark on a journey for the sake of journeying, marking the end of something and the beginning of something new.

An inspired idea, you’ll agree. Now with some inspired photos to go with it.

www.thenorwegianway.net