22 12 09

Static Models at Vigeland Sculpture Park, Norway.

Vigeland Sculpture Park, Oslo. Norway

Norway is without a doubt one of my favorite destinations to visit. I appreciate the openness, the space and feel of living so close to nature. Which may seem strange for a country so hung-up on technology, nevertheless most Norwegians place great value to a simple lifestyle and their closeness to nature. Oslo, for example is a city much like any other you may care to visit in Europe, with familiar shops on every street. However a short T-barn (train/tram) trip to the outskirts of the city puts you slap bang in the middle of beautiful forests for as far as the eye can see.

A couple of years ago we travelled north to see how much of this great country we could pack into a couple of weeks, traveling by air, road and the fantastic Hurtigruten passenger/mail/cargo ships.

Our start and end point would be the capital city ‘Oslo’. On our first day we were met by dark cloudy skies and poor light, not ideal photo conditions, so we decided to take a trip up into the Frogner area of the city and have a look round the Vigerland Sculpture Park. The park is host to some 212 sculptures in bronze and granite, by Gustav Vigeland. Having never been a huge sculpture fan I wasn’t expecting a great deal, I was wrong! The sheer size and amount of these pieces made the mind boggle. One mans work, completed between 1939 -1949. Not only did Gustav design all the pieces he was also responsible for the design and architectural layout of the park.

Photo wise, as I mentioned things didn’t look great, But as you can see from the images above, the dark November skies made a perfect backdrop to these amazing looking pieces.

Find out more about Vigerland Park

James Goldsworthy

,

Comment

  1. I visited Oslo in May 1999, I remember the sculpture park well, a truly lovely place to visit. You’ve managed to capture the the statues in a wonderful way. Thank you for the memories.

    — Martin · 9.08.09 · #

 

Recent Articles