©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Black Leaf

Living in Finland for four years led me to discover the magic of SAGA. I first met Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes at a portfolio book workshop through NORDPhotography, organized in St. Petersburg with Cig Harvey – from Helsinki, St. Petersburg was just a four-hour train ride. But the real understanding of Elisabeth came when I visited SAGA in Norway.

Elisabeth has created something magical there – a place that feels as much like visiting a friend’s home as attending a workshop. When I arrived at the tiny Inderøy train station, Elisabeth was waiting to pick us up herself. That personal touch defines everything about SAGA: delicious warm meals after cold photographic adventures, hours browsing her extensive photo book collection while looking out over the water, sauna sessions followed by bracing swims.

Elisabeth has a gift for seeing where you need to grow and creating the environment for it to happen. I’ve had the privilege of learning from her in many settings – at SAGA, through her online classes, her mentor program with Cyan gallery, and memorably when she visited me in Finland. In Finland, we explored Helsinki’s community darkroom together and attended a workshop on alternative processes at the Finnish Museum of Photography, talking photography and Nordic life with the ease of old friends.

That’s Elisabeth’s magic: she creates genuine connections that extend far beyond any workshop. Now, as she pursues her MFA at Maine Media while continuing to expand NORDPhotography’s offerings she shows us that growth never stops. Her current project Ashes to Ashes reveals an artist willing to walk into darkness to find meaning, just as she encourages all of us to push beyond our comfortable boundaries.

An interview with the artist follows.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Tree Moss

Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, born in Norway (1969), is the Founder and CEO of NORDphotography and SAGA Center for Photography. She runs SAGA Gallery and teaches NORDphotography’s Mentor Program in Oslo. She has a BBA from BI Norwegian Business School, and worked in Real Estate from 1995-2002 before spending a transformative year travelling the world. This journey led her to enroll in the Professional Certificate Program at Maine Media Education, which she completed in 2005. Aanes assisted acclaimed American photographer Joyce Tenneson from 2005–2006 at her studio in Maine and New York City. She also assisted for the legendary 20×24 Polaroid Studio in NYC. After her return to Norway in 2006, she started organising creative retreats with Tenneson in Maine, an experience that inspired her to establish NORDphotography in 2010 and later open SAGA Center for photography in 2012. Aanes is currently pursuing her MFA in Photography at Maine Media Education (2024-2027).

Her personal work has been exhibited in Norway and the United States, and was selected for CMCA’sc“40 Photographers / 40 Years” exhibition in 2013. In 2007 her project Behind the Scene: Oslo FashioncWeek was exhibited at DOGA (The Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture) in an exhibition sponsored by Canon Norway. Work from this series was later featured in the book Motepiloten (NorskcForm, 2008). A continuation of the project, focusing on Norwegian designer Peter Løchstøer, was exhibited at Sekkefabrikken in Slemmestad in 2011.

Aanes’s fashion work has been recognised with Silver in Gullsnitt, the Norwegian award for commercial photography, and Silver in Photographer of the Year by the Allers media group (2008). She holds the cover of The View Project, a curated art book by Joyce Tenneson featuring more than 50 international photographers. Her cover piece, The Storm, was included in the traveling U.S. exhibition in 2011.

Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes lives at her beloved place SAGA, located in rural mid-Norway.

Instagram: @elisabethnaanes

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, The Whale

Ashes to Ashes

The project Ashes to Ashes sets out to explore the emotional landscape of grief. The work is crafted in a space where time appears to halt, leaving us to contemplate the line that lingers between life and death.

I found that the moment I lost my dad the world came to an halt, and served me a peak into a different dimension. It was like a small window had cracked open and lit up a path between past, presence and beyond. Time suddenly had a new property as it physically moves me further away from the world I had known. But I also became aware of the threads that connects what remains with what is gone, and found new understanding in how the impermanence that lives in everything living is also what binds us all together. It is in this space that ‘Ashes to Ashes’ was found. I have worked intuitively, capturing found moments in nature and using them as guiding markers to help me navigate unfamiliar emotional terrain. I chose to photograph in a specific area, one I know intimately, which allowed me to feel safe as I moved through the experience of grief. Familiarity with the landscape gave me a sense of emotional control, which was crucial at the time.

Another tool I employed was limiting the number of images I could create each day. I brought only one memory card with me, with space for about 33 images. This constraint forced me to slow down, to be fully present with the landscape, responding to it in real time, and connecting with moments that mirrored my inner state. I quickly fell into a rhythm, photographing almost daily. The forest I walked in, in the end had lost the sense of being a forest. It evolved into a surreal landscape with emoticon faculties, a place I would visit to find visual clues to my inner state. Some images revealed themselves too early, and I had to wait to capture them, until I was mentally ready. Others appeared unexpectedly, challenging and inviting me to move deeper into the landscape of loss.

In Ashes to Ashes, my subject is nature, which, in retrospect, feels inevitable. I come from the northern part of Norway, where the climate is rough and the seasons sharply varied. We grow up respecting nature as a greater force, one we depend on and spend much of our lives within. My attachment to the natural world feels woven into my DNA, as I believe it is for most Norwegians. This deep connection has long fuelled my desire to preserve moments in nature through photography.

However, Ashes to Ashes is the first time I have used nature intentionally to mirror inner emotion. It made me feel connected to the earth in a new way, as if I had discovered a shared language I had always known but never fully understood. Nature reminds us that everything has a purpose and a life cycle. Nothing lasts forever; we are here for only a brief moment. Photography, for me, becomes away of collecting memories, thoughts, and feelings, allowing each experience to deepen in meaning over time. That, I think, is part of the magic of this medium. — Elisabeth N Aanes

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Scull

Your project “Ashes to Ashes” emerged from profound personal loss. Can you talk about how this work found you?

When my father died, everything stopped. It felt like I’d glimpsed another dimension. Time became something new, physically carrying me away from the world I’d known with him in it. I realized that time was moving us at different speeds and in different directions. I realized too that the impermanence of this world is something that binds and unites us, and from that “Ashes to Ashes” was born.

I first tried to connect with him through his analog Canon camera – he had worked in our hometown photo boutique growing up. But over the past few years, I’d gotten used to the size and convenience of my phone’s camera. I needed something smaller, so I got a Fujifilm X100VI that I could carry in my pocket. It does very well in the low Nordic light of winter.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, The Lifeline

You photographed in a very specific way – same area, limited shots. Why these constraints?

I chose to work near my home at SAGA in Inderøy, Norway, because I knew I could be routine with it and it was a place I knew very well, and therefore I could feel safe there as I explored my grief. That familiarity felt essential – I needed to feel safe while navigating grief. Having that anchor, that known landscape, gave me some emotional stability when everything else felt uncertain. 

The first day, I grabbed a small memory card with only 33 images, and I found that forced me to slow down and respond to the landscape, like a roll of film. The constraint really worked for me, so I kept it.  Perhaps part of it was that it is similar to a roll of film, and there was a connection to my father’s analog love of photography.

I’d walk the same paths around 6 PM most days, and gradually the forest transformed. It stopped being just trees and became this emotional landscape where I could see my internal state reflected back at me. 

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Air Bubbles

It must have been really dark then in winter in Norway? 

In Inderøy, the light is really only up and muted from 11 AM to 2:30 PM in winter. But that Nordic light has this bluish quality that helps carry emotion. It changes, reflecting off snow and ice, becoming more diffuse and soft. The Fuji handles this low light beautifully. These monotone images mirror that in-between space I’ve felt since my father’s passing.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Ice Calfing

Your images really capture that sense of existing between worlds that you describe. Can you walk us through a few and what they revealed to you?

There’s one image with ice where you can see parallel cracks moving apart – that captures exactly how I feel about time now, my father and I moving at different speeds, the space between us growing wider. One of the pieces of ice is bent over the rock; it looks a little like Dalí’s melting clocks, and it made me think about how time moves differently now. Another has trees reflecting in water, some in the land above, some below – that in-between space where I’ve been living since he passed. The bubbles trapped in the water, a gift from an otter that lives near SAGA, echo to me of my father’s continuation through the galaxy.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Grey Matter

Your mentor, provost at Maine Media Education and photographer Elizabeth Greenberg, speaks about waiting for the right moment in her Imaginary Place series where she captures images on her daily walks. Does that resonate with your process?

Yes, exactly. For me, in this project, some images just appeared, effortlessly, but others lingered in the dark forest, waiting for me to be emotionally ready to capture them. It sometimes felt like a cat-and-mouse game. Other times, an image would present itself and gently nudge me to go deeper into the grief. It gives me a sensation of stepping into a strange in-between space, where time and place disappear, and memories, your history, and dreams allow you to feel connected to the past and the present all at once.

Like most Norwegians, I have a deep connection to nature and I trusted nature to guide me in this period of grief. We’re taught from childhood that nature is cyclical, that everything has its season and purpose. It’s a harsh teacher but an honest one – nothing is permanent, we’re all just passing through.

Was the frozen deer one of those images that had to wait?

Very much so. When I first saw it, there was no snow – just this deer that must have jumped in the water accidentally during a storm. It was harsh, difficult to look at. Then when it snowed, I realized that was the time. The snow was like healing, covering the hardest parts, softening the brutal reality. It reminded me how memories work – how time and distance can mute the harsh realities of someone’s passing, leaving something gentler behind.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Pine Cone Tree

You’ve built NORDPhotography and SAGA into something remarkable over 15 years. What drives this commitment to creating space for photographers?

I value most my ability to be a catalyst for people to grow their photography. I like to match people who can have good conversations. We’re a bit like Santa Fe Photographic Workshops or Maine Media, but there’s nothing else quite like this in the Nordic region. It took time – I’d planned to do my MFA since 2016, but setting up NORDPhotography and SAGA took priority. Now it’s more established, and I can pursue my own growth too. We also try to offer a wide range of classes so people can grow to the next step, eventually seeing their work in a book or an exhibit, or maybe both.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, The Deer

You’re introducing something new – Artist Weeks.

Yes! This is something I’m really excited about. Five artists, often former participants, but anyone welcome, come and stay at our creative center, SAGA, for a week. There’s no formal program, just a space to focus on work. Rumor has it I am an excellent cook, so I make a delicious breakfast with, of course, homemade bread, and a homemade dinner for our guests, to give them a communal gathering place where, if they feel like it, they can share the day’s effort and ideas. They can present their work to the group if they choose, but it is entirely optional. We had our first Artist week last year and it went beautifully. We’ll have planned two Artist Weeks next year, one in March and one in September.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Forest Gallaxy

What makes NORDPhotography special as an international meeting ground?

We’ve become a place where photographic cultures meet and learn from each other. Nordic photographers bring this wonderful relationship with nature and light – we grow up respecting nature as a greater force. 

Ragne Sigmond’s light painting work is a perfect example – she takes our relationship with darkness, which is so fundamental to Nordic life, and transforms it into something luminous. When she teaches here, participants suddenly understand that our long winters aren’t obstacles but opportunities. Nordic photographers have this particular relationship with light and nature that enriches the global photographic dialogue. My role is creating the space where these exchanges happen.

Creating inclusive workshops and online courses means being intentional about language and cultural exchange. In Norway, we’re used to moving between languages – our films are subtitled, not dubbed, so English is part of daily life. This helps create natural flow in international groups. But it’s more than language – it’s about creating space where different approaches to photography are equally valued.

I see my role as matching people who can have meaningful exchanges regardless of background. When someone from Texas meets someone from Tromsø, and they discover shared obsessions about light or process – that’s when magic happens. The workshop becomes richer because of these different perspectives, not despite them.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Footprints

You’ve brought legendary photographers like Joyce Tenneson and Deborah Turbeville to Norway, and taken participants everywhere from St. Petersburg to Italy. How important are these cross-cultural connections to what you’re building at NORD?

These connections across countries and disciplines really matter. We’ve been fortunate to host and learn from incredible artists – Deborah Turbeville, Joyce Tenneson, Connie Imboden, Amy Arbus, Arno Minkkinen, Elizabeth Avedon, Jill Enfield, Anna Clarén, and so many others. And we’ve taken our participants on adventures too – to St. Petersburg, Iceland, Maine, throughout Norway, and to Italy with Sal Taylor Kydd.

Giving participants different arenas to be inspired by and present their work in – that can change everything for an artist. Just recently we had a panel talk that made me so proud: artist and co-founder of Nordic Analog Network, Stig M. Weston from Cyan Studio in Oslo, joined chief curator Lisa Hydén from Fotografiska Sweden for a live portfolio review. Seven photographers from Anna Clarén’s online mentor class presented their projects and received invaluable feedback.

Those moments make an impact. They can shift the entire trajectory of a photographer’s journey. That’s what we’re after – creating conversations that push photography forward, one connection at a time.

©Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, Dark Road

What’s next for NORDPhotography and for your work?

Our catalog comes out early next year – the best place to find all our workshops is on the NORDPhotography website. And I’m deep into my MFA work at Maine Media, having just had my second critique with work on the walls. It’s about continuing to grow, even after 15 years of running NORDphotography and SAGA, with all that entails. The work continues, the conversations continue, and the light continues to change and inspire new creative growth and opportunities.