05/08/2026
With jury members from, among others, MoMA and Pratt Institute, the American Institute of Graphic Arts has named Imagine a Place one of last year's 50 best books. "A fantastic capturing of the multifaceted aspects of a place." Among other things, this means a book of photographs from Lyngør and the people who live there will end up in the library at Columbia University. This particular copy is also bound in a piece of sail from my grandfather's cousin's boat. (Beautifully done by Julius & Ørenberg Bokbinderi)
This is seriously cool — and maybe a bit extra cool given that New York was once a well-known port of call for sailors from Lyngør. So well-known, in fact, that there's a story of two Lyngør men running into each other by chance on Manhattan, exchanging a brief greeting, and carrying on — in other words, a perfectly everyday occurrence.
The English edition of the book has been beautifully translated by Lucy Moffatt in Risør, who recently translated an excerpt of "Furthermore, I Consider that Carthage Must Be Destroyed" (Kyrre Andreassen) - for GRANTA. Lucy is the recipient of the Wigeland Prize from the American-Scandinavian Foundation in NY, where Imagine a Place can also be purchased. The (English) book is also available at Fotoboka on Rathkes gate, and at the sail loft, of course.
AIGA's design competition has run since 1923, and this year saw entries from 29 countries.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the book.
https://www.olebrodersen.com/shop
