Christian Houge, born 27.03.72, is currently living in Norway.
After finishing studies in Oxford, England in 1992, he worked as a photo assistant in Oslo for a year and a half. He has also attended several extensive photography courses in Maine, USA.
He has been making a living as an advertising photographer with big clients for the past ten years and is now slowly moving into the world of art photography. Christian has been staying in Southeast-Asia for quite some time, working on projects which are soon to be finished.
He has had several exhibitions and made a soup cookbook for the Salvation Army last year. Christian is currently working on four other book projects. These include two panorama projects and two of his Soulfood series exploring religion. One of these is a collaboration with H.H. Holiness the Dalai Lama 14th focusing on Tibetan monastery life in exile and the Tibetan faith. The other is on the holy men of India.
Snowmobile gas station:
This panoramic image is of a gas-station for snowmobiles in the town of Longyear, on the Norwegian island of Svalbard. Besides the actual pump, the image is totally lit by moonlight and has quite a bizarre and lonely feel to it.
It reminds me a bit of the most typical American “stockphoto images” of a lonely gas station in the desert. To me, the polar version looks more authentic.
Synnøve on the dock:
This is a very simple image of a typical Norwegian girl enjoying the silence and clearness near the water in Oslo. It shows a setting most people would like to be in themselves, I hope. A space where you might even get to spend some time with yourself.
Amidst the chaos of modern technology, this is becoming more and more difficult.
E-mail, palmbooks and mobile telephones makes us humans more and more efficient in our daily lives.
Ålesund aquarium:
This image is from a large aquarium in Ålesund in Norway.
All the fish here are from the natural surroundings in the fjords and ocean. This particular fish is a “kveite” (halibut), and weighs about 130 kilograms. During feedingtime, a diver joins the fish to do some mingling. This kveite become a bit too anxious for “goodies” and surprised the diver with a super-gracious turn, making his homo-sapien body look a bit clumsy.
Docks at Svalbard:
This image is taken from a closed Russian coalmining community on the frozen island of Svalbard. Since there is not a tree to be found on the island, it is quite strange seeing such a large area of wood just standing out to sea. It is so cold that smoke is coming out of the water in the afternoon sun. More images from the Russian coalmining communities can be seen on www.soulfood.no
Arctic Technology, Svalbard:
The arctic blue defening silence. Solitude. One can hear/(feel) the vibrations of the Earth in this silence.
A silence which lets mankind listen to his own destiny on planet Earth.
In a world where Gods presence is strong, Man has built these technological wonders listening, constantly searching for knowledge outside of ourselves.
Faith in the future becomes knowledge of the past.
This series of photographs is taken during the last four years, on the Norwegian island of Svalbard or Spitsbergen , located roughly 78 degrees north, between Greenland and the North Pole.
Because of its extreme northern latitude and relative isolation it is known as `the cleanest place on Earth` for scientific measurements of the atmosphere. Scientist from all over the world come here to gather information, in an attempt to predict the future of our planet. The locality is also favorable for climate research of the Earth, global change in sea level, space geodesy, atmospheric pollution and large communication uplinks for the satellites orbiting the hemisphere.
NASA, Alcatel, the Norwegian Space Center, Telenor and the Norwegian Polarinstitute are some of the institutions who have research and intelligence centers located here.
The photographs in the `Arctic Technology` series explores the symbiosis and contrast between mankind’s most advanced technological structures, and the vastness of a primal, arctic landscape which is unchanged since the beginning of Man. The series sheds light on Mans constant search for knowledge.
When I first encountered these incredible structures, I was on assignment covering the preparations of a British Arctic explorer, for a London based magazine. We were making our way across the untouched glacial interior of the island when out nowhere we saw the looming shapes of satellite dishes, more than fifty meter in diameter, quietly communicating with unseen objects in deep space. The slow moving dishes were awe-inspiring. Silent steel giants, homing in on nothing but space. How misplaced and alien these huge metal forms were in this landscape, yet at the same time how confident, futuristic and perfect.
Their massive size became miniscule in relation to the peace and vastness of the icy blue whiteness. Endlessly searching, listening to space in silent anticipation, poised to receive and send invisible data.
The images are from several locations, and the light is as extreme as the landscape on this frozen island. The images are graphic and abstract, yet detailed and concrete. In some pictures the shutter speeds are close to one and a half hours, letting the natural light change within the exposure and therefore letting the image `live` on its own in a way that is impossible to control completely or to recreate. Light metering for shutter speeds is impossible in this light and introduces a dimension of `intuitive` photography comes in.
Waiting for these exposures, in my polar survival suit and often close to forty degrees below zero (celcius), has done something to me.
It has made me digest the landscape and light in a totally new way. Feeling it rather than seeing it, almost in a meditative state. Everything becomes clearer and slow moving, the silence almost deafening. At the same time, one notices that ones senses are more alert than usual. A primal alertness. Eyes adjust in another way and sounds become more distinct. The creak of the snow, the isolation from humanity, the oppressive feeling of threat, from weather and polar bears.
The landscape of Svalbard is slowly and forever changing. Continuous. The same can be said about our search for knowledge of life, and the constant change in technology. The mystical primal landscape still remains monumental and silent. Mother Earth.
Since the beginning of time, Man has been searching for answers of all kinds. This search has always been directed outwards, to the stars and sky. Many questions still remain unanswered.
Abraham was asked to count the number of stars to find answers to his questions in biblical times. This has not changed.