A new exhibition if photographic portraits by Anita Orheim has gone on show in the departure lounge at Sumburgh airport as part of the Bonhoga Gallery Touring Exhibition Programme organised by Shetland Arts. Moving Through Borders will remain at Sumburgh until late November when it will transfer to The Peerie Shop Café in Lerwick and then Whalsay, Unst and Yell Leisure Centres over the next year.

Anita Orheim is a Norwegian photographer based in Shetland. She studied with award-winning Norwegian photographer Paul Bernhard in Bergen for her degree in 2004 before coming to Shetland in 2006 to study at the Shetland College as an Erasmus exchange student on the BA Culture Studies course. Anita was intrigued by both the wild weather and the hospitality of the local community and, after finishing her studies, she decided to stay in Shetland. In 2010 Anita was awarded a Visual Artist Award by Shetland Arts to work towards an exhibition of portraits. Anita said, ‘I wanted to capture the international creative diversity in Shetland. Moving Through Borders is for me a celebration of the variety of creative international artists in Shetland. I know there are more artists I haven’t reached due to the time scale and I could probably have gone on for years taking photos for this, to expand it.

‘People have been very keen to participate and they have willingly shared their experiences of why they came to Shetland. The common ground between all the artists I have met is that they feel drawn to Shetland, a lot of them came here on holidays or were just going to stay for a while and ending up settling here. Many also share the fact that if they are away from Shetland too long they get really home sick and miss the bare open landscape with the sea and sky that makes them breathe and the silence and the sound of waves and the wind that fuels their creative powers.

’My aim is to get people to see all these wonderful creative people that are living here and also give them some credit for the important work they are doing by moving from a foreign country and to start their own business here to help the local economy in Shetland.’

For more information on the exhibition, the Visual Artist Award Scheme or to purchase a print from the Touring Exhibition Programme please contact Jane Matthews at Shetland Arts on (01595) 743843.

Source: Shetland Arts