Trine Søndergaard & Nicolai Howalt

Trine Søndergaard & Nicolai Howalt have worked collaboratively since 2000. With individual practices grounded in photography, their long-term collaboration draws upon their shared aesthetic and similar stance behind the lens. Søndergaard and Howalt bring a subtlety and softness to their depictions of the natural world around them—landscapes, animals, and greenery are captured with a particular quiet delicacy. How To Hunt (2005) features images resulting from several hunting trips attended by the duo. “There’s no blood, no guts,” the artists’ statement informs: “the kill itself is not in focus.” Rather, the series captures landscapes in which the men with guns, their canine companions, the trees and hills, and the birds that await their fate are treated equally as elements in a carefully constructed scene. This is an interest that runs throughout the pair’s practice. As their titles attest, later series like TreeZone (2009) and Dying Birds (2010) continue an attention to the natural world. In addition to creating books to accompany each project, Sondergaard and Howalt’s photographs are often displayed in dynamic installations. The pair have exhibited internationally together, at institutions including Denmark's Kunsthal Nord and Aarhus Kunstmuseum, in addition to active solo careers.