Sophus Tromholt : Starman

Sophus Tromholt (1851-1896) was a teacher and northern lights researcher, but today he is remembered first and foremost for a unique series of portraits of the Sámi people living in and around Kautokeino in Norway's northernmost county Finnmark. 'Starman' is the first book dedicated to Sophus Tromholt's photographs. For the first International Polar Year in 1882-1883, Tromholt established a private northern lights observatory in the village of Kautokeino. Throughout the winter, he conducted thorough observations, hoping they would solve the mysteries of the aurora borealis. Intrigued, the locals named him Násteolmmái: Starman. Despite repeated attempts, Tromholt had to give up his ambition to photograph the northern lights and instead turned his camera to document his surroundings: the landscape, the traditional life of the Sámi, and the people he met and got to know. Today, his photographic portfolio including around 50 portraits of named individuals is a part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, one of only five photographic archives accepted into the programme. The authors have worked with Tromholt's archive at the University of Bergen Library for a number of years. Here, they situate Tromholt's photographic practice in a historic context, including discussions of the development of travel photography, museological practices and 19th century attitudes to indigenous people.