Norway’s New Photographic Landscape

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Helge Skodvin was not on a typical road trip â€" he was about halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Mr. Skodvin, a photographer from the west coast of Norway, was driving around the Svalbard archipelago searching for cars.

Yes, cars. Four Volvo 240s, to be exact.

“On my last night there I went for a ride,” Mr. Skodvin said, “and to my surprise came across a fifth Volvo 240.

“Pure happiness!”

The result of Mr. Skodvin’s Volvo quest â€" a rumination on a national symbol â€" is “240 Landscape.” It appears in the first volume of the Norwegian Journal of Photography, which came out on Friday in Oslo. The publication also features the work of nine other Norwegian photographers: Andrea Gjestvang, Karin Beate Nosterud, Ingvild Vaale Arnesen, Ellen Lande Gossner, Marie Sjovold, Monica Larsen, Linda Bournane Engelberth, Eivind H. Natvig and Oddleiv Apneseth.

Espen Rasmussen, a photographer with Panos Pictures and one of the project’s three editors, says it is “an exciting development in documentary photography in Norway,” as photographers cross lines between documentary and art, with the freedom to explore long-term projects.

“From road trips to more metaphysical journeys,” the photographers Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb wrote in an introduction to the book, “from isolated northern towns to more ethnically diverse southern cities, from Norway’s elderly to its youth, what these NJP projects share is a kind of questioning of the complicated issues that face Norway today.”

Eivind H. Natvig From “You Are Here Now.”

The journal, which will be published with the Fritt Ord Foundation once every two years, presents a new â€" although not always young â€" generation of Norwegian photographers to a wider audience. And it shows the country through 10 different lenses, whether fixed on Volvos or otherwise.

In his artist statement for “240 Landscape,” Mr. Skodvin notes that 2,850,000 Volvo 240 cars were made between 1974 and 1993; 84,287 were sold in Norway, which has a population of fewer than five million people.

“More than any other car,” he wrote via e-mail, “the Volvo 240 became a symbol of Norwegian and Scandinavian values. The safe, the sound, the commonplace. Square and homely, yet solid and reliable. Function over form. No frills. Taking you from A to Z.”

It was the vehicle he needed to portray Norway’s landscape.

The call for applications for the journal went out in 2010, and 10 photographers were selected the following year. “We just purely went through the pictures to get a feeling of which picture stops us,” said Rune Eraker, who edited the project alongside Mr. Rasmussen and Laara Matsen, a photographer, writer, photo editor and curator.

They were also looking for lesser-known names. Ms. Arnesen, 40, had never worked as a professional photographer when an artist friend encouraged her to enter. Her application caught the eyes of the judges. Her project, “Somewhere in Between,” examines adolescence among girls.

“There’s a kind of a rawness in her pictures, which I have not seen much of,” said Mr. Eraker, a documentary photographer and curator.

Only three men were included in the collection.

“I find that women have this ability to not only be bothered with technique but actually see the people they deal with,” Mr. Eraker said. “I think that’s maybe one reason why there are so many women represented here.”

Helge Skodvin Lier, Buskerud County. From “240 Landscapes.”

The projects range from traditional documentary work â€" like Ms. Nosterud’s “Welcome Goodbye,” a touching series showing people living in nursing homes â€" to the not-so-traditional. Mr. Natvig describes his gorgeous, moody photos as “images stolen from a film about Norway that was never made.”

The various projects say something important about the state of photography in Norway.

“Twenty years ago, Norwegian documentary photography was laying low,” said Mr. Eraker, 51, who began working there as a photographer in the early 1980s. Back then, it was impossible to have work shown in a museum. He had his first solo show in 2001 at the Stenerson Museum in Oslo â€" the first exhibition of documentary photography by a Norwegian to be shown in Norway, he said. Around the same time, the country saw an explosion of interest in photography, influenced by the online international photographic community.

Another change occurred when the Fritt Ord, a foundation that supports freedom of expression, announced a 2006 call for applications for photographers. It provided about $1 million in grants for 38 photographers, who were chosen the next year. Mr. Eraker was the picture editor for a book that showcased the work of those selected, the youngest of whom was 17.

Today, Norway’s newspapers are more open to publishing documentary photo essays. “I don’t know if I can say it’s unique, but it’s quite extraordinary, compared to many countries in Europe, at least,” Mr. Eraker said.

The 10 photographers featured here did not receive large grants. They met with the editors informally as they worked over the two-year period (although some have been working on their projects longer).

“This time it was people looking to do this on their own spirit and drive,” Mr. Eraker said.

Ingvild Vaale Arnesen From “Somewhere in Between,”

The Norwegian Journal of Photography began Friday in Oslo. Photographers chosen for the second volume will be announced in May. Follow @rasermus, @kerrimac and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.