Karoline Hjorth is Fotografihuset’s new artistic leader, and Katharine MacDaid is the CEO.

From Karoline Hjorth: «I look forward to starting the brand new year as artistic leader of Fotografihuset! It will be exciting to continue in the hunt for shelter, and not the least I look forward to firing up photo sparks in all directions through this year’s exhibition program! “

With a background in art photography and journalism, with a small portion of seafaring life, I have worked as an artist, photographer and author since 2009. With the portrait as a methodical starting point, I work with exhibitions, installations and publications, and am always grateful if a project I have worked on over a long period of time finds its final form between two binders. My first book Mormormonologene was published in 2011, followed by Algoritmeanekdoter in 2019. Through the ten-year collaboration with my Finnish partner Riitta Ikonen, I have had the honor of publishing three more books; Eyes as Big as Plates (2017), Time is a ship that never casts anchor (2018), and the brand new Eyes as Big as Plates 2, which has just come out of print.

www.karolinehjorth.com

From Katharine MacDaid: “I’m very excited to be the new CEO at Fotografihuset, and to have the opportunity to help build a photographic space in Oslo that becomes a cultural fixture for the whole community. I really believe Oslo needs somewhere for all kinds of photographic narratives to be heard, from the experimental to the more traditional. Photography is the most democratic artform, we all understand photography quite instinctively and it is part of all of our lives in so many ways. At Fotografihuset we are building a space to present what is both fresh and contemporary, alongside established ways of seeing, somewhere that the photographic community will know as a creative hub and as a supportive and inspiring institution with a love of the medium as its guiding principle.”

Katharine MacDaid is an Irish artist and teacher based in Oslo, she has an MA in photography from the Royal College of Art, London. Her photographic practice centers on the psychological power of the landscape within autobiographical narratives. After growing up abroad with Irish parents, where she continuously moved from one country to another, she uses photography as a way to examine an inherent feeling of discomfort. After her MA, Katharine moved back to the Sultanate of Oman for several years to create the work: Of Calling Shapes and Beckoning Shadows, a confrontation with childhood ghosts. She then spent time working in Alaska, eventually publishing her first book, The Fireweed Turns. The Fireweed Turns was launched at Photographer’s Gallery in London in 2019. Katharine is currently working on a new work in Northern Ireland. She teaches photography in the UK and the Middle East and is currently a guest mentor at Bilder Nordic School of Photography.

http://www.katharinemacdaid.com

We warmly welcome Karoline and Katharine!