Masterclass med Michael Christopher Brown på MIRAGE Film Festival

October 11 2023

Join us for a master class in collaboration with Norwegian Journal of Photography and Mirage featuring star photographer Michael Christopher Brown, where he will let us in on his latest AI projects and share the thoughts behind them. He will talk about how he works with AI technology, and the challenges it poses for photographers and the industry. This is a unique opportunity to hear from an expert and gain insights into the future of photography and technology

Friday, 13 October 2023, 7.30 p.m. – 9.00 p.m.
Vega Scene 1, Oslo

After Browns presentation, a conversation between Brown and the audience will be led by NJP editor and curator Laara Matsen.

Michael Christopher Brown’s work utilizes the iconography of photojournalism to amplify stories using unconventional techniques. From combining the multimedia applications of the iPhone in documenting the 2011 Libyan Revolution for the book and film Libyan Sugar, to using text prompts gathered from on-the-ground research in generating imagery for the 2023 AI series 90 Miles.

90 Miles represents a post-photography AI reporting illustration experiment that utilizes photographic-looking imagery to explore historical events and the realities of Cuban life. These realities have motivated Cubans to cross the 90 miles of ocean separating Havana from Florida. In the AI series Skagit Valley, they examine potential past and futures of nuclear, climate, renewable technologies, and machines as connected to agriculture.

Editorials have long used reportage illustrations to illuminate stories in fresh ways. As anyone may now collaborate with the collective history of photography to illustrate the photographed world and create a story or vision of what was, is, or can be, AI may play a crucial role in enhanced identification with storytelling and, by extension, humanity.

Tickets available here.

Below photos from Browns 90 miles post-photography, A.I. reportage illustration experiment. For details concerning the images, see airlab.co

News

Eirin Larsen and Hadia Tajik join the Fritt Ord Board

August 5 2025

Eirin Larsen (36) and Hadia Tajik (42) bring valuable experience from journalism, technology, politics and jurisprudence to the Fritt Ord Board.

Making the film «Farouk» – on the geologist that secured Norway its oil

July 1 2025

Geologist Farouk Al-Kasim joined the the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in 1968, shaping Norwegian petroleum resource management for decades afterwards. Now, documentary film director Halkawt Mustafa and producer Janne Hjeltnes are making a film about Al-Kasim’s life and reflections.
“Farouk tells me something in this film that he has not talked about before, because he has always told the version he feels Norway wanted to hear,” recounts Mustafa, who has Iraqi roots himself.

Read the interview with the director and see the list of grants awarded by Fritt Ord in June 2025.

Bård Vegar Solhjell new chair of the Fritt Ord Board

July 1 2025

Bård Vegar Solhjell (53) has taken over as the new chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board.

Cultural newspaper TBATBA.no and new journalism grants – June 2025

June 19 2025

– Cultural journalism is under pressure. Part of the problem is media outlets failing to cover culture in formats and ways that appeal to people under 30, says Ida Madsen Hestman, editor, freelance critic, and founder of TBATBA.no. Last year, she started the kind of publication she herself would want to read.

The magazine TBA is among those awarded funding in June 2025. See the full list of grants in Norsk Journalistikk.