On the hunt with Øistein Jakobsen in Bergen, NO
Squeezed between seven mountains Bergen is a Norvegian city of some 290.000 souls. I’ve been following Øistein, the driving force behind the popular FB group ‘StreetArt Bergen ,’for some time now and when he reached out to talk about our Bergen map, we immediately connected. Bergen is the gateway to the fjords and for Øistein sees it as the gateway to local culture of street & urban art, where it flourishes. It’s all in the walls — histories, illegal, legal and “semi-illegal”. At night the illegal turn up on a wall of choice, in the morning the artist do commissions — under the same tag as the night job. It’s a weird city. It’s wired for street and urban art. There are 90 + active artists roaming the streets of Bergen.
1. Who?
More or less everything in my life evolves around street and urban art. I live the life 24/7 documenting the streets. Been like this since I started walking the streets of Bergen back in 2015.
After getting to know the sub culture and some of the artists involved I soon recognized that there was a factor missing. Someone who could develop, build and run projects. AND have no economic interest. There had been previous attempts. They had all failed, more or less.
I am a state employed time anarchist. No kidding! That’s what I am. Awesome job title. Means I can do whatever I want when I want. In laymen’s terms I am disabled. Thereby paid by the state to be a consumer, so I can do whatever I want — more or less.
After 50 years on the work force in industry, involved in all from fisheries, hot tarring of roads, teaching, to later what became my professional career which has been in fisheries doing R&D and marketing I am now 100% dedicated shooting in the streets and documenting what ends up on walls in and around Bergen.
In addition I develop and run projects. By now this has made some 30K m2 of street and urban art in 30 (+) projects.
It’s like an organic symbiosis between the artists, businesses, public, press and what I do.
I have developed a way of communication incognito with all artists at the same time. When they see my logo on my SoMed platforms, they know they should check their e-mail. It’s like the bat signal!
2. Where?
My hunting territory, hHm well there is the geographical area. But Bergen is a bit “odd” when it comes to street art. There are hunters in town. I am definitely one of them. My situation is a bit more complex than just hunting. You see I am member of the IFJ — International Federation of Journalists — thereby holder of a press card. Which by itself provides possibilities. The police cannot touch my cameras, phone etc. But it also provides the artist with the possibility of actions shots. What quite often happens is that artists sneaking out into the night gives me a heads up, telling me where they will be painting. Thereby getting those unique action shots. Which are not just a pic of a “dead thing” on a wall.
And since I know the locals — more or less all — in addition organizing and running major projects it’s like all this boils down to an awesome mix where people paint, I shoot and they can use my pictures pro-bono. Great deal for all parties.
Also I assist shooting “stuff” as bases for print when needed . They make a piece of art, I shoot it and they make prints — even silk screen if that is the way they go. Quite fun.
3. The Beginning?
I’m so old that my first encounter with street and urban art was seeing that somebody had written on brick walls as we hurdling through Europe doing Inter-rail back in the 80-ties. It’s always been in the back of my mind. Then by chance I started hunting. This took off and years later here we are.
Most of all it has to do with the contemporary dimension. Something happens in the news and at night there is a stencil up on a corner. The other is the awesome techniques and skills involved in making a piece. If you step up to murals, think about the physics which is needed to make such art. Hundreds of square meters within days. The whole package surrounding street and urban art is just … respect!
4. The Difference
The thing with Bergen is the huge number of stencil artists on one hand and the city’s love for street art on the other. There are few cities, world wide is my assumption, where you will find so many stencils. There is maybe one or two stencils added a week. In addition there are the writers, muralists, multi expressions, etc.. Most of the segments are present in Bergen. We even have three ladies which only do tactile art. Two of them hackle and one makes ceramics, which they glue to walls as illegal street art.
So if u come here looking for murals — you’ll find some.
If u are a true hunter of street and urban art. Well put on some good shoes and you can spend days and nights hunting within our “city walls”. There is loads to see.
Then we have the citizens. The 290 K souls. About 95% of them love street art. They have been asked and they replied. I even handed the city major a canvas of an illegal stencil as an official gift to the municipality. This with one of the local newspapers following. The handover was made in front of the illegal stencil on the wall. So … you see this city is a bit “crazy” for street art.
Did u know that Banksy painted in Bergen before he got famous? Well he did. But them locals had started long before he arrived. He was here like the turn of the century.
5. Favorite Gear
My gear: hart and soul are two full frame Canons … a 5D MKIV and an RP. Lenses range from 8 mm to 600 mm. Good mix of zooms and fixed lenses. I often operate at night thereby I have lenses with high aperture. Most are weather proofed. Thereby I can operate during any weather condition. I often find myself between the face of the painter and his / hers cans so by sticking to L’s they are also “no dust into the camera” type of gear.
I pack the bag for the task of the day. Often I find myself with the RP, a 16 mm fixed and a 24–105 zoom. Even a 16 mm and a 28 mm is OK, all you need in most cases just to shoot a piece. At these mixes I am light. With the 16 you can get into really tight spots. Here in Bergen there are a lot of allies. Sometimes so tight I have to make a panorama based on the 16 mm, but that’s rare.
Must admit I love those pancake lenses Canon has. It’s like “nothing” sitting on the camra’s front. But this stuff is getting a bit nerdy for most. Hardly ever use flashlight. Always a couple of rechargeable work-lights in the car. Cameras and lenses these days are so good that light is seldom a topic — i.e. combo of ISO and image stabilizing of the lens. Often the light from the phone is enough. If needed there is a tripod.
I only shoot RAW. Never with the phone. Reason is plain and simple picture quality and what you are able to do with the pics after they have been shot.
I handle all in a Dell Tower, and crack them in Lightroom. Why Lightroom (LR) and not Photoshop (PS)? I document — thereby I do not “photoshop the pictures”. Another huge advantage of LR over PS is the vast number of tags you can tag your pics with, and have in your archive. At the time I have some 60K+ pics in the machine, 95 % is street and urban art. They are tagged with title, artist, spot (street), town and country if needed. It’s an archive going back to 2015. By using LR which is searchable I can find any given pic within short time (secs). If this does not function, I can backtrack from country down to picture.
What is always with me when I am hunting? Truth is I never leave home without a camera.
6. Style vs challenge
Style is documenting, thereby what it is. Then u have the special which accurse when u are with the painters. To be able to capture such moments I love. They are like a glimpse in time.
Do I have a style? Maybe …
7. Any crazy adventures?
Never got robbed doing this. Never got caught be the police either. They have tried but then I flash my presscard and they take one step back. This then resulting in me having pics of them chasing the situation. There are off course juicy stuff. But that’s to juicy to be put in print.
8. Don’t miss!
As I said there are 90+ artists in town. The Street Art Cities map covers most of what can be found (while writing it contains a staggering 950 locations already). Put on some good shoes. When transport is needed the public system is well developed and efficient. By using the system you can transport yourself into an area, then hunt across to the next transport. You can “hop” around easy, really easy if you are into it. Check out the map and places. Link the map to the transportation map which you find on www.skyss.no. Skyss covers busses, boats and the light rail road.
Some of places in the map have “The Project” added in the title followed by the logo of StreetArt Bergen. Here you will find projects which we have run and there are clusters of street and urban art. Then you have the legal walls which always are worth while visiting.
StreetArt Bergen is my platform. It only exists on Facebook . It is like a historic timeline back to aprox 2015 or so.
9. Crush?!
My suggestion is that you look through the map. I am sure you will find someone of your own taste and likings. You will find most if not all of them on Instagram. Writers are under pseudonym so them u don’t find easy but that’s life.
Since I know them all it’s like you like them on their own terms.
Lately the Norwegian Prima painted by Peeta (Italian artist) made an impression. She came sailing by my living room windows late august 2023.
10. Collections?
I don’t collect as in collecting like most people would think. But I have an awesome collection of art which consists of T-shirts, prints, canvases, boards and other. It’s like what goes around comes around.
11. Street Art Cities….
I do not speak with many hunters — except those in my hood — I speak considerable more with the artists. Both locals and outside our turf.
SAC is a platform that functions. I have tried out several over the years and not found it worthwhile to participate. SAC on the other hand covers the basic needs and beyond. It gives the hunter a possibility as well as the artist. The platform is easy to use for the public — which is one of the main things in my evaluation. Remember I am a marketing guy of profession. SAC is a bundle of win-wins.
The greatest over all? It is run by idealists like me. One of the many (or few) pro-bono teams around. “You can’t beat that with a stick” goes the saying.
It’s a winner … period!
12. Any last words?
Øistein joined in June this year after a short conversation about SAC, he needed to learn who’s behind it before he shared his treasure of knowledge. He cleaned up the existing map and started populating them on a daily base, about 800 at the time of writing, while also convincing local artists to ‘claim’ their artist page.
Check out the Bergen map in our app and look for his uploads and follow him. And make sure to check his FB group.
Street Art Cities is ‘the world’s street art platform’, a global community of art lovers, artists, galleries, festivals and city wanderers building the world’s biggest street art map. You can find over 48.000 locations in + 1400 cities in the world, find ’em all the with the free Street Art Cities app (available on iOS and Play store). They also offer services to assist citymarketeers and tourist departements to tap into the rising popularity for street art. The German city of Cologne is the latest to join the ‘Offical Partnership Program’ .
