Anders Beer Wilse

Anders Beer Wilse ( born June 12, 1865 in Flekkefjord, † February 21, 1949 in Oslo ) was one of the most influential photographers of Norway.

The son of an engineer Lauritz Wilse Marius and his wife Karoline Dorothea Beer grew in Kragerø on, was already driving at the age of 13 years at sea and ended in 1882 an engineer at Teknisk Skole ( Technical School ) in Horten. In 1884 he emigrated to the USA where he initially could not find work. The state-owned United States Geological Survey finally employed him as a cartographer. This work made ​​many trips required mainly by the Northwest of the United States. One of the tasks Wilses was to produce photographs of the measure area; in this way he came to the fledgling medium into contact for the first time. In 1886 he bought his first camera in 1897, he operated a photo studio in Seattle, with whom he had success quickly. 1888 survived Wilse the downfall of the Danish passenger ship Geiser, which sank after a collision in the North Atlantic.

At the request of his family, he moved back to Norway in 1900, where he now Oslo, opened his own shop a year later in Christiania. He quickly became the leading Norwegian landscape photographer. In parallel, he worked temporarily as a correspondent for the newspaper Aftenposten in far away Svalbard, which at that time was not yet opened up for tourism. Even otherwise Wilse combed through with his ten -pound camera sometimes barely reach terrain and made with his photographs from all parts of the country for a documentary Norwegian cities and landscapes. He also photographed people, primarily in work processes, such as the fishermen of the Lofoten before the introduction of motor boats. The most famous cultural figures of his time, he portrayed. In Oslo, the Nationaltheatret founded in 1899, became a favorite subject of photographers. Besides outdoor shots many screenshots of great theater historical value are due to him.

While still alive, Wilses took his son and longtime companion Robert Charles the business and ran it until 1958. Wilses After death, the Norwegian Folk Museum acquired no less than 112,000 negatives of the pioneer. His recordings Oslo collects and preserves the Oslo Bymuseum City Museum ( Oslo ), while about 1,000 portraits Wilses now part of the collection of the Nasjonalbiblioteket. His extensive archive allows a unique insight into the changes in Norwegian society and since 1900.

Wilse has won several awards, such as with the Royal Medal of Merit in gold and the golden knob of the Norwegian Tourist Association. Since 1937 he was an honorary member of the Norwegian Association of Photographers.