In the work of Tom Sandberg, the inherent qualities of the language of black and white photography are explored with a subtle and strong economy of media and subject matter.
Tracing abstraction within representation, his diverse body of work ranges from titanic, almost monochrome skyscapes to classical genres like the portrait and the female body, negotiating between the indexical and the iconic elements of the photographic image. Accidental dislocations and in-betweens define the human experience in excerpts of the everyday. Sandberg has an affinity for complex visual reality in ambiguous surfaces that do not quite reveal themselves. In this absence, an equivocal tension of visual paradoxes and juxtapositions emerges. In techniques including photogravure, palladium and silver gelatine prints, the images may appear on sheet aluminium, behind glass or on fabric.
Tom Sandberg is one of Norway’s foremost photographers, and his work is represented in major galleries, museums and collections internationally.
Torunn Liven