artists     stories    image-search     news    contact

Winter Solstice

© Tine Poppe

December afternoons in the city centre of Oslo, Norway. The days around winter solstice have only a few hours of daylight and the longest nights of the year. Norwegians call this time of the year “mørketid” - the time of darkness.

In ancient times the days surrounding the solstice were called “Yule” and worshipped as a reawakening of nature. The Norwegian translation of “Christmas” is “jul” and many Christmas traditions such as the Christmas tree originate from ancient Yule customs.

Norwegians no longer worship the reawakening of nature around winter solstice, but sadly rather the opposite. As the world wrestles over what they should do to keep the planet from heating up to dangerous levels, Norway remains one of the biggest oil producers in the world and hesitates to curb the expansion of oil and gas production while raging wildfires, once-in-100-years storms and lethal heatwaves have become fixtures of the everyday news.



Finalist LensCulture Street Photography Awards 2017
Honourable Mention IPA International Photography Awards 2017


click to view the complete set of images in the archive



Institute Artist is redefining how stories are produced and told. Representing auteur-driven storytellers, we bring together talent across commercials, photography, fine art, and film. Founded by Matt Shonfeld and Frank Evers. Institute Artists multi-platform production expertise, and established global relationships in entertainment, fine art, and journalism make for unmatched reach and cross-pollination of creative work. Institute Artist has been a leading advocate of the power of underrepresented talent and is fully committed to bringing these authentic voices to our clients by helping them tell compelling and entertaining stories that better connect with their audiences.