Bergen Old County Prison

Bergen Old County Prison is a former correctional facility whose architecture reflects ideas of control, order, and isolation.

Through black-and-white photography, this project explores the building not as a historical monument, but as a quiet space marked by absence, structure, and memory.

After completing the book BERGEN – Architecture and Stories, I continued to be interested in Bergen's historic buildings. By chance, I joined a guided tour of the prison and became deeply fascinated by the building. One could almost feel the atmosphere from the time when inmates walked these corridors under the watchful eye of guards stationed in the guard tower on the third floor. Or imagine what it was like to walk through the fan-shaped exercise yards, with high walls separating each section.

Right then and there, I got the idea to create a photographic series with a dancer moving through the building — in the corridors, staircases, cells, and out in the exercise yard. The building had been unused for more than 30 years since the prison closed and clearly bore the marks of time, with peeling paint and layers of dust. There had, however, been a few art projects in the space, leaving traces here and there. What concerned me most was that renovation work had begun, both in the exercise yard and inside the building. I wanted to portray the prison exactly as it was at that moment, with its worn and almost grotesque character.

Luckily, I was granted access to the building for a period and was able to work with a professional dancer, Synne Erichsen. With my wife, Ingrid, assisting, we began the project.

What I wanted to express through the images was the feeling of being involuntarily confined, of losing control over one’s own life, and the despair that follows. I also reflected on the possibility that some may have taken their own lives there, and that perhaps their spirits still linger.

It turned out we were working against the clock, as renovation was underway at the same time as the photography. As a result, the images have already become historical.

Facts about Bergen Old County Prison:

Bergen Old County Prison is located in the very heart of the city, right next to City Hall and Lille Lungegårdsvannet. It was built in the 1860s, and, as was typical of the time, the prison was directly connected to the courthouse. The prison was therefore linked to the courthouse by a skybridge and consisted of about 60 solitary cells, corridors with galleries, exercise yards, and workshops. The prison was closed in 1990, and the building is now protected as a heritage site.

Exercise yard.

Interior.

Guard Post

Locked for ever.

A Beam of light

Alone

I was here.