Publication of Nordic Noir on the Washington Post !

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*** The crowdfunding is successful, you have until September 20 to pre-order the book.

If we reach 150% I will travel to Svalbard in Norway, during a cold dark winter in order to continue the FILM Nordic Noir.

Thank you all!

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A graduate of the school ‘Le75’ in Brussels in 2009, this young photographer already has several reportages hailed by international critiques under his belt. His incisive and sombre visual writing, along with an unswerving commitment and determination, make him one of the most compelling young talents of recent years.

Since 2008, he has been producing projects at an almost dizzying pace. Among them are Police, adventures of a night squad; Prisons, a true immersion in the prison system; The Ruins of the power, a foray into post-Gadaffi Lybia; The Last shelter, on junkies, the homeless and others left to the streets of Berlin; and Deposito Temporal, in Mexico's morgues.

NORDIC NOIR

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In Nordic Noir, a series started in 2012, in parallel to his other works, his documentary style gives way to a more poetic and introspective dimension.

Captivated by the Scandinavian lands from a residence in Norway, Sébastien Van Malleghem has since advanced his travels from Denmark to Iceland, passing through Finland and Sweden. Nordic Noir is the visual recital of this contrasting trek. With breath-taking and timeless landscapes, scenes of life and harsh portraits, the series is closer to a constellation than a linear path. In the explosion of emotions that is the series, the photographer finds the right balance between the sublime and the banal, between the grandiose and the intimate. Leaning towards reverie in this work, Sébastien Van Malleghem's eye remains sharp and keen; just as well when the scenery lends itself to pure contemplation, to the exhilaration of large spaces, to the experience of solitude where he captures a carefree and unbridled youthfulness that lays itself unreservedly open in front of the lens.

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Sébastien Van Malleghem has received numerous awards, including the Bozar/Nikon Monography Serie Award 2015 for his reportage Prisons.

He also edited the books Police (2015, Editions Yellow Now, collection Angles vifs) and Prisons (2015, André frère Editions), selected as one of the best photo books of 2015 by Time. He recently work on drug addiction in collaboration with the french Association "Réagir" (React / translated) and published the book from the same name in 2017 with André Frère Editions.

His images are regularly printed in the press, in the daily newspaper De Standaard as an independent contributor, but also in Le Soir, De Morgen, Le Vif/L’Express, Paris Match, Le Monde, Time.

Texte : Marie Papazoglou (Directrice du Musée du Botanique de Bruxelles)

www.sebastienvanmalleghem.eu

From North-Road to Nordic Noir

This work started after an artist residency organised by the Norwegian photography couple Oyvind Hjelmen and Helén Petersen on the island of Halsnoy. I drove there with my musician friend with the idea to get back to more simple form of photography, which wasn’t for once a reportage. After a month on the island we drove back to Belgium.

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One year later I traveled for the first time to Iceland. I went all around the country and it was on that trip whereI decided to go further with this series of photographs.

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Struggling with lack of funds to continue my project I was later lucky enough to receive the Vocatio Grant,which permitted me to continue and finalise this story through Scandinavia. Between two reportages I headedto Denmark.

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Later I decided to go and photograph Lofoten islands. I crossed Norway by train from Trondheim, rented a car on Lofoten island and after I took a bus to Tromsø.

I still had the need to see Sweden and Finland, so I drove later from Belgium to Stockholm, took a 12 hour boat to Turku in Finland, drove along the coast and up to Lapland. From there I drove down all of Sweden and back home.

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I have now traveled more than ten times to Iceland and it was on my last trip in the Westfjords in Iceland where I decided to end this work.

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Following my exhibition at the Botanique Museum in Brussels the newspaper De Morgen contacted me to publish the story and their journalist Rik Van Puymbroeck titled the article « Nordic Noir ». Convinced that the title was fitting much better with my work then its original title « North Road », I decided to change the title.

Head page of the publication by De Morgen

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Nordic Noir has been published on :

TIME

RTBF (National Belgian Television)

Nordic Noir pour De Standaard (Belgian Newspaper)

Interview à propos de Nordic Noir pour le magazine Bruzz (Belgian culture magazine)

Inside the French magazine L'Obs and the Belgian newspaper "De Morgen"

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Thank you so much for your support !

Nordic Noir the book / Sebastien Van Malleghem