Flashback — Norwegian Landscapes in Retrospect
In 1998, NIBIO established a programme of ground-level photography called "Flashback — Norwegian Landscapes in Retrospect." Over a period of five years, a first-round of photographs were taken at 130 randomly selected 1 x 1 km plots. The plots were located throughout the entire country, and they include agricultural land. These photographs provide a basis for repeat photography, to illustrate how landscapes change over time.
Contacts
Between 25 and 40 photographs were taken at each plot, and each image was archived with its map coordinates, cardinal direction and the focal length of the lens. This archive now provides approximately 4500 initial photographs for comparison when selected plots are re-visited and photographed again in the future.
New Photographs of Former Landscapes
Since 2002, the Flashback Programme has been supplemented with re-photography of old landscape photographs. The old landscape images have been sourced from different photographers, including both public institutions and private individuals. The exact viewpoint of the photograph has been re-visited and a new photograph has been taken in the same direction as the old one.
Two photographers in particular inspired repeat photographs throughout the country: Axel Lindahl (photographs dated 1884–1896) and Anders Beer Wilse (photographs dated 1901–1948). The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Norsk folkemuseum) currently holds the rights to use these images and is also a main partner of NIBIO in the Flashback Programme.
In addition, many newer NIBIO images are now being photographed again. These photographs are also archived with the date they are taken and the coordinates of their viewpoints. All pairs of photographs, illustrating landscape continuity or changes, are eventually transferred to the archives of the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. To date, approximately 4000 landscape shots have been re-photographed.
The method of photography used for the Flashback Programme is one of several measures that NIBIO uses to obtain site-specific environmental information. The photograph pairs (or series) are particularly useful for illustrating other types of data and statistics about landscape continuity and changes over time.
Greater Knowledge about Landscape Changes
In line with the European Landscape Convention, our intention is to expand knowledge and awareness about different types of landscape changes. We highlight how a variety of changes in key social domains can be linked to changes in our landscapes. Such changes may be driven by developments in agriculture, urban and suburban areas, transport, trade and industry, changes in population size or composition, and management of outdoor recreation, cultural heritage and natural resources.
The images show changes, regardless of whether they are perceived to be negative or positive. By using the photographs together with information from systematic monitoring programmes (e.g. the Norwegian Monitoring Programme for Agricultural Landscapes and the National Forest Inventory), we can provide information about how common the changes are that we see in the photographs or highlight changes that are representative for particular landscape types.
Publications
Abstract
When ground level photography is to be used in landscape monitoring, it is important to record when, where, how and possibly even why the photographs are taken. Standardisation enables better repeat photography in the future and maximises comparability of photos over time. We used a Cultural Environment protected by law on the peninsula of Bygdøy,Oslo municipality, as a study area to document advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to the first round of landscape photography for long-term monitoring.