COPENHAGEN.- Photography has often been understood as a tool for preserving reality, a trace of the world that confirms what is seen. For Tom Sandberg (1953–2014), however, the camera was something else entirely, an instrument for dissolving the boundaries between the familiar and the enigmatic. NILS STÆRK is proud to present an exhibition offering insight into Sandberg’s artistic development, encapsulating his distinctive gaze and his ongoing search for the indeterminate within the everyday.

His images revolve around seemingly simple motifs: an airplane on an empty runway, a girl with her eyes covered, or the shadow of a man glancing into the horizon. Beneath these surfaces unfolds a complex visual dialogue about perception and time. In Sandberg’s world, there is no singular narrative and no imposed symbolism. Instead, the viewer is invited into a space where meaning arises in the tension between what is present and what is absent. As critics have noted, it is often what one does not immediately see that lingers in the mind long after.

Central to Sandberg’s practice was his subtle work in the darkroom. His richly modulated greyscales, deep blacks like volcanic glass and soft whites like frosted crystal, create a tactile presence that exceeds the photographic image itself. This meticulous calibration of light and tone contributes to the atmosphere of stillness and unease that defines much of his work.

The exhibition brings together works from various periods of Sandberg’s career, highlighting his sustained engagement with the limits of perception. What does it mean to see, and how does the image shape our understanding of the visible? Sandberg’s photographs raise these questions without offering definitive answers. They are open works that invite the viewer to linger in the indeterminate.

With a visual language that ranges from the monumental to the nearly invisible, Tom Sandberg reimagined what photography could be. His works stand as a quiet testimony to an artist who insisted that even the humblest subjects contain entire worlds if observed with care.

Following this exhibition at NILS STÆRK, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter will present Verden vibrerer (October 31, 2025 to March 1, 2026), the first comprehensive retrospective of Tom Sandberg’s work, spanning from the late 1970s to his final years. Recognized as one of Norway’s most significant and prolific art photographers, Sandberg also made a lasting impact internationally.

Tom Sandberg is known for his seductive and tactile black & white photographs. The characteristic works in rich grey tones have since the 1970s been the Norwegian artist’s undoubted signature. Sandberg was a photographer and a human being in constant motion, drawn by the magic of the moment and always hunting for his next motif. Sandberg’s photographic practice was linked to the tradition of straight photography - this artistic approach comes through in Sandberg’s clean and unmanipulated photographs where the captured moment stands without editing, revealing the artist’s eye for camera angling.

In his work, Sandberg explored the surface and depth ratio in a motif and built an often ambiguous, yet very recognisable world of images. Sandberg’s photographs reveal his fascination for a complex visual reality; he consistently managed to capture cloud formations in the very moment that they would take on a different and more personal presence. Both his figurative and non-figurative works bear the same high level of intensity. Even the seemingly abstract works attracts the eye and engage our own mental images - what you see is not necessarily what you get. Tom Sandberg has exhibited at Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, and Fondazione Fotografia Modena in Italy and his international recognition had its peak with the solo exhibition at MoMA – P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York City in 2007.