Week 6 - 2016
Unknown photographer/Foto Schrøder, from the reportage «I kveld é det dans(Dance Tonight)», 1958. Preus museum's collection.
Floodlit love
We will let this picture illustrate love, even if fleeting. Or was it the start of a long-term relationship?
The picture comes from the story I kveld é det dans (Dance Tonight) from the Trondheim newspaper Addresseavisen in late summer 1958. The paper's reporter and photographer went to four country towns in Trøndelag, the district around the Trondheimsfjord, from nine on a Saturday night until 4:30 Sunday morning to tell about life at local dance halls.
"Fest på lokalet"—"Party Here"—was a social event long before photography emerged, but the way of seeing this party, simultaneously anonymous and revealing, hadn't existed before. After the Second World War electronic flash became a standard part of Norwegian photojournalists' equipment, and new motifs became accessible. Photography of sports events, interior spaces, and night scenes was revolutionized by electronic flash.
New technology has continued to revolutionize photography since this picture of a heated embrace was taken on a summer night at the end of the 1950s. How anonymous can we be today?