Artist Interview: Line Bøhmer Løkken (Photographer/Multipress)

– Hello. First, could you please give us a brief introduction about yourself?

I was born in 1970 in a small mountain village in Norway. Photography has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My father even had a darkroom in the basement and I think I sold my first photos to a newspaper when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I went to university in Gothenburg, Sweden, where I studied photography for five years. After graduating, I lived in New York for a few years before settling in Oslo. For most of my career I have been fortunate to work in art as a teacher, curator and in galleries whilst continuing to create my own work.

I mainly work with photography, and my themes are how we relate to and, in a broader sense, experience different places through the architecture, people, and things that characterize them. I strive not only to achieve a visual experience through photography, but also to express a sense of physical presence through photography.

– Multipresswas founded in 2000, and is now in its 18th year of operation. It is rare for an independent publisher to continue operating for such a long time, but how did Multipress get started in the first place? Also, what was the art book scene like in Oslo in 2000?

MultipressMalta AustraliaandAnna Greta ThorensBut it really started after they produced a publication in 2002 on the theme of "Photography as Public Art". At the time it was popular to produce catalogs to accompany exhibitions, and they produced the catalogs together. So in a way, Multipress started as a practical solution to produce books, and it continues in the same way today. Publishing companies are very closely related to our own artistic practice. If it wasn't, I don't think we would have lasted this long.

At that time, there was almost no art book scene, and probably very few art books in the whole country. The idea of ​​a collection of works as an artwork in itself was not yet widespread at that time, but it has gradually spread since then. Around that time, we started to discuss what the difference is between a catalog and an artist book. Usually, it takes about two to three years for an artist to publish a book, from idea to financing to completion. And those discussions led to the publication of Manual, a collaborative project between me and Thanh Au-Motte, an artist one year older than me. We wanted to create a book as a starting point for an exhibition, not as a kind of container to store the results of the exhibition. That is still the theme of my work today, and it remains the same even if the subject matter of the work has changed a lot. Yes, I really think so.


Fotografi som offentlig kunst by Anne-Grethe Thoresen and Marte Aas (2002) ©︎Multipress

– You published your first photo book in 2004."Pictures & Things"It will be published by Multipress. How did you meet them and how did you end up producing a photo book?

I spent my late teens and early twenties with Marta. I was 18 and she was 21 and she was my first proper photography teacher. We were accepted into universities in Sweden at the same time and lived together in the same house. We've now been sharing the same studio for 8 years, which should give you an idea of ​​how well we know each other. Publishing with Multipress gave me the freedom to make all my own choices that a regular corporate publisher doesn't give you. I think being able to do what I wanted was probably even more important to me then than it is now.

– And then in 2013 you actually joined Multipress. How did you end up joining?

He has published three books through Multipress."Tøyen sentrum"When I was making the photo book, I was thinking about whether I should join them or start my own publishing company. I also wanted to go to book fairs myself to see if I should put more effort into promotion and to see what the situation was like on the ground.

– When I first saw your Multipress collection, I got the impression that it was derived from a different context than mainstream photo books today. In other words, it is more of a contemporary art or artist book context than a photography context. However, since you joined, it seems that Multipress's production has actually shifted to the second stage, with more hardcover titles and the launch of the Angle series. Are you currently the one running the company? Also, has anything changed as a result of that?

Yes, I am the one who runs the company now. It is very difficult to judge whether it was before or after I joined. I am so involved in all the projects that I am in a way blind to it, but of course I had some vision when I joined. I wanted to collaborate with more artists and have a broader but more specific selection of artists. As for how this has influenced my style, it is again difficult to put into words, but each experience at Multipress has always generated feedback, and I have learned about books and bookmaking in general, and I have become more aware of the process than before. Perhaps the biggest change has been who I work with and the focus on the medium of photography. The positioning between photobooks and artbooks is exactly right, and our goal is that all of our books have a concept and logic beyond style preferences and fashion, without claiming to be outside of so-called disciplinary tastes. In the beginning, we were exploring themes such as expanding the book format itself and what the book medium can do, but now we see books as more of a place for the work to develop further.



Tøyen sentrum by Line Bøhmer Løkken (2014) ©︎IACK

– A zine series in which each issue is produced with a different artist"Angle"is a project that started after you joined the company. This project has a wide variety of content, and although it has a small number of pages, each issue seems to be consistently high quality. Could you tell us more about this project?

Angle is an artist, photographer and bookmaker.Verena WinkelmannIt is a project I am working on in collaboration with. The original idea was to produce a dense publication in less time than usual large-scale projects. It was also because I wanted to make Multipress more active and increase the number of publication titles. The theme of Angle is to explore the possibilities of the photographic language and to provide a continuing discussion on contemporary image-making. With this project I want to sum up the Norwegian art scene and also to enter into a dialogue with the international scene.When we started Angle, we set ourselves a very lofty goal: to eventually produce 90 volumes. It would take a lifetime to complete it. We are currently funding the next four, and reaching volume 30 will be the first big milestone. At that point, we can probably reconceptualize and rediscuss the next 30 volumes.

– What is the production process for a collection of works? For example, how do you select the artists and how do you incorporate their works into the book?

Multipress is in a sense a "self-publisher" and what we offer to our writers is, well, an umbrella. We work almost exclusively with acquaintances and close friends. And for all books, except Angle, the writers pay for them themselves. Instead, we discuss and advise together at every stage, from concept to layout and design. Of course, the writer is ultimately free to accept it or not. It is very important for us that the writers have autonomy over the final product. Due to our lack of capacity, we cannot accept many writers, no matter how good the offers are. But Angle is an exception, where we invite the writers and curate it. The selection of the writers is based on a continuous dialogue between Verena and me. But as a new challenge, we have next asked Hester Kayser to select two writers. This is a new initiative and we hope it will be a fruitful one. Hester was trained as an artist, but now works as a curator and writer. I think that artists who have experience collaborating with other artists will probably see things and make choices differently than those who have never worked with anyone other than themselves.

– Since publishing your first photo book, you have continued to publish many of your own photo books. I would like to ask you again, what does it mean to you to produce a photo book? Also, do you have any particular reason to publish a book through your own publisher and not through another publisher?

The book format, or the book as a "place of exhibition", is very important in my work as an artist. I have never thought of a book as a catalogue or something to be simply referenced, but as a work in itself. I always discuss these choices with myself, because I try to make the design match the concept of the project. And I spend more time on the rhythm (sequence) of the book, because I want the image itself to be visualized before the layout. In my own practice, it is definitely essential to think of my work in the format of a book. There is also a certain freedom in the restrictions that come with making a book and being responsible for all the choices myself. For me, at least at the moment, I find the democratic aspect of being more accessible and purchasable for those who are interested in the work more interesting than the uniqueness of a special edition or something like that. There is no doubt that there is a close, loving relationship between photography and books, and I think the two are a great combination.



Feature: Multipress at IACK (2018) ©︎IACK

– I once read an article that said Norway is a kind of paradise for publishers. What is the current state of publishing and the art book scene in Norway?

Norway has a very good funding system for the arts. For example, artworks are taxed 5% on top of the normal tax. And that money goes directly to foundations that give grants for new works. Whenever we talk about funding, it is often pointed out that all the agreements and rights for artists are always under pressure from the right, and we always have to fight against that. The number of artists is growing a lot, but the funding to fully support the field is not growing. So it's getting harder to get funding every year, and we absolutely have to be more professional. And this means that certain forms of work are more likely to fit into the system, which paradoxically leads to artists making work that is easier to get funding for.

Also, the number of art books produced every year is increasing, especially in the field of photography, everyone wants to make a book. So here again, the number of grant applicants is only increasing. But if you have good work and perseverance, you can always make it happen. And in Europe, the number of photo books published is increasing, but the number of people who actually buy them is not necessarily increasing. What I feel recently is that I strongly feel the need to ask myself whether it is really necessary to use the book format in my work. I think the question of why to make a book is becoming more important than ever.

– What are your future plans for Multipress?

Multipress has one project that needs some more funding, but four Angle books will definitely be published in the fall. Personally, I am currently working on a newspaper-themed piece that I plan to give away for free at an exhibition in September.

(Interviewed on 6 June, 2018)

Portrait of the artist ©︎Line Bøhmer Løkken

Line Bøhmer Løkken
Photographer. Born in 1970, based in Oslo. His photographic work focuses on how we relate to and experience different places through architecture, people and objects. In recent years he has focused on a more phenomenological approach to photography, exploring the tactile aspects of vision and aiming to obtain a tactile reading through the gaze. He has held exhibitions at Kunsthall Oslo, Gallery F15, Fotogalleriet, Henie- Onstad Kunstsenter and Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst. He has published a number of artist books and is co-organizer of the artist-run publishing house Multipress, where he curates and manages the project Angle 1-90°.
www.linebohmerlokken.com

Multipress
Multipress is an independent Norwegian publishing house founded by artists Marta Ås and Anna-Greta Thorensund in 2000. Photographer Leena Bämmer Lokken joined the company in 2013, and the company continues to produce art books with a focus on photography to this day.
www.multipressforlag.com

A collection of works by Lina Bama LokkenHere
For a list of Multipress's works, please seeHere