People Of The Sápmi

In 1882 the Danish researcher and teacher Sophus Tromholt travelled to Northern Norway in order to investigate and photograph the Polar Lights phenomenon. In between his work he took a keen interest in taking pictures of the native inhabitants of the area, formerly known as Lapland. Today the area is called Sápmi, wheras the original population is referred to as Sami.
Tromholt's energetic efforts resulted in a remarkable collection of glass-plate photographs, housed at the University of Bergen, Norway.

One of Tromholt's photographs of polar lights

Sophus Tromholt

Tromholt in Sami outfit at his Aurora Borealis observatory

It was my son on a vacation in Bergen who came across an exhibition of Tromholt's original black and white photographs at the University Library. Both he and I were familiar with Edward Curtis' world-famous images of the American Indians, which prompted him to inform me of the lesser known work of Tromholt. Internet material on Tromholt is not overwhelming, but a fair number of pictures can be found. Particularly some modern-day colored versions appear: This is the work of Per Ivar Somby, of Tromsø (and of Sami origin), who employs a skilful and disciplined coloring technique.

These color versions cannot replace or push aside Tromholt's original black and white photographs. Yet, to be honest, it is stunning how a little color energizes these pictures to jump at us across a gap of nearly 140 years. In the Kautokeino area, where most of these pictures were taken, the color images enjoy tremendous popularity. This is also due to Tromholt himself taking care to note down the names of everybody he took a portrait of, going against the grain of the times to view these people as primitive nomads. Thus the present day Sami can often identify their relatives from bygone days.

Somby at times takes the liberty to crop the original images, presenting us with close facial portraits that immediately strike us as very modern. These images reveal an amazing array of characters with composure, dignity, resilience. Men, women and even the children seem to be embedded in the wealth of experience that their lives at the frontier of the uninhabitable generates.
The Tromholt Collection has been included in UNESCO's Memory Of The World list.

Exhibition of Somby's color prints at the Tromsø Library

Somby with a color print