THE SUN SETS INSIDE YOU

In 2017 the Norwegian photographer Erik Mowinckel was recovering from a prolonged period of mental illness. At the time the walks in Oslo, his home town, accompanied by his camera served as a kind of therapy for him. For Erik taking photographs became a way of relocating himself and played a crucial part in his process of recovery; The walks became a much needed routine and photography worked as a channel to express and deal with difficult emotions. The book The Sun Sets Inside You tells a deeply personal story of recovery through fragments of both darkness and brightness. “When looking at the photographs now, knowing where I was in my life, I can't help but think that they deal with grief. The city depicted has a feeling of emptiness to it, as if it's unusually quiet, desolate, or even peaceful. Even though a few of the photographs include people, they remain anonymous, you see the back of their head or their figure from a distance, sometimes rendered almost invisible due to the oncoming light. During the years I took these photographs I was in a process of recovery, I was slowly finding my way forward but it happened so slowly that it is only in hindsight that I notice that I'm in a better place now. The Sun Sets Inside You deals with grief, but first and foremost it is about hope. ” -Erik Mowinckel