Photographer and interior designer Orsolya Haarberg (1977) is from Hungarian heritage and is a landscape architect by training. She turned her passion for photography into a profession when she moved to Norway in 2005.
Orsolya is a multiple award-winning photographer. Her accomplishments include numerous international exhibitions and the publication of four stories in the US and international editions of the National Geographic magazine. She is a member of The Photo Society, the world’s leading photojournalists and documentary photographers – a collective of over 200 Nat Geo photographers. Orsolya has published four coffee table books with photographs from Iceland, Lapland and Laponia World Heritage Site in Sweden. In her current project “Fjell” she focuses on Scandinavian mountainscapes.
«I seek to create images that fascinate and immortalize the landscape in a time of change and unpredictability. My photographs are not manipulated, no elements are removed or added.I look for the uniqueness in nature, the contrasts like the big in the small, the wild in the calm, the sharp amongst the softness. When my curiosity is awakened I become one with the landscape through the viewfinder and my ego is silenced. Breaking down the subject and creating a balance within the image elements helps me to convey the stillness within me, even in the winter storms. I use subdued colours and unique graphic patterns to depict the grandeur of a simplified landscape. My success is realised when the images touch the viewers, resonate with them and opens up the possibilities of interpretation based on their own experiences in nature.»
After a long period of almost solely focusing on her photography whilst travelling, she has recently settled down in Vågå and opened Fjellheimen Galleri in 2020 where she exhibits and sells fine art prints of her own photographs.
Orsolya also designs and creates handcrafted items from raw materials collected locally, which are too available in the gallery. Old wood, reindeer antlers and wool are her favorite materials that she brings into life by crafting functioning pieces which create a unique ambience in the modern home.
Her handcrafted frames are made of naturally aged, sun-burnt wood dismantled from old buildings and barns in Vågå and Jotunheimen. Orsolya carefully observes the shades of colours, the radiance and the texture of the wood used to match each photographic detail to emphasize its connection to the mountains.
In the project “REiN naturally Nordic”, Orsolya immersed herself in creating standout pieces using reindeer antlers – collected in Jotunheimen – as raw material and for aesthetic inspiration. Orsolya’s remarkable skills of observation have been developed and sharpened through decades of nature photography. With a deep understanding and respect for the mountain’s ecosystems, the natural shapes of the antlers are transferred into spectacular interiors that also meet human needs. Orsolya composes interiors based on nature’s own principles as well as recreates the organic forms into a new conceptual unity. In the REiN interior series, the wealth of detail created by nature is combined into unique whole.
Selected exhibitions:
Ullinsvin, Vågå | “Stille natur” | 2024
Ringebu Prestegård | “Stille krefter” | 2024
Hungarian National Museum, Budapest | Collective exhibition, National Geographic Hungary | 2023
Ullinsvin, Vågå | REiN – Naturally Nordic | 2023
Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary | Images of light – 2nd National Salon of Photography 2021 | Collective exhibition | 2021
Ullinsvin, Vågå | Laponia – majestic stillness, Iceland – land of contrasts | 2020
Stadtmuseum Schleswig, Tyskland | Visions of the North | 2019
Ájtte, Svenskt fjäll- och samemuseum, Sverige | Laponia – majestic stillness | 2018
Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, Hungary | naturArt 25 collective exhibition | 2018
Gallery Naturfotografiska, Hallstahammar, Sweden | Laponia – majestic stillness, Iceland – land of contrasts | 2018
Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary | Pictures and Pixels, Photographic Art – and Beyond | 2016
Photo Fair Stockholm, Sweden | Solo exhibition | 2012
Photo Fair Copenhagen, Denmark | Solo exhibition | 2012
Photo Fair Oslo, Norway | Solo exhibition | 2012