Leif Karsten Dahlen – A Life Lived in Colour and Consequence

Leif Karsten Dahlen is a painter from Trondheim, with ancestral roots in Fevåg on the Fosen peninsula. His presence carries both warmth and gravity — a man shaped by experience rather than ambition, humour tempered by reflection.

This series was created during a shared photographic session with photographer Jonathan Stone. Without prior coordination, without shared concepts or lighting plans, we worked independently in the same space, responding only to the man in front of us. Two photographers. One subject. Parallel intentions.

The encounter unfolded in two parts. First, the act of photographing — quiet, concentrated, intuitive. Later, a recorded conversation that forms the basis of a podcast episode, where Leif Karsten speaks openly about his earlier life with alcohol, the cost of excess, and the discipline required to return. To painting. To presence. To clarity.

Dahlen’s work often revolves around figures, archetypes and uniforms — symbols of authority, vulnerability and irony. There is tenderness in his brushwork, but never sentimentality. The same tension exists in him. Photographing Leif Karsten was less an exercise in portraiture and more an act of witnessing.

Some images reveal stillness. Others confront. Some invite playfulness. Others strip everything away. Together they form a portrait of a man who no longer performs — only exists.

Parallel Visions – Photographs by Jonathan Stone

Jonathan Stone’s photographs anchor Leif Karsten within his own environment. Surrounded by paintings, furniture, objects and memory, the artist becomes inseparable from the space he inhabits. The room is not a backdrop; it is an extension of the subject.

There is a contained stillness in these images — thoughtful, observant, grounded. Where my own approach leans toward exposure and movement, Stone’s work holds. It listens. It allows the weight of time to settle.

The result is not contrast, but resonance. Two visual languages converging around one presence.

Thanks to Sofie Frøseth Olden for excellent support and video.