Brynhild Bye (born in Levanger, Norway, 1968) began taking photos as a child, fascinated by everything in her immediate rural surroundings, but it was in the 1980´s that the camera became an all important tool as she lay the foundations of her career as a visual artist. During her explorations with the camera, through different jobs, in various places in Norway, she via the lens was introduced to the northern light, the scenic coastlines and the midnight sun. In 1989 she lived in Iceland for six months working in a greenhouse. She travelled to the mountain area of Landmannalaugar, which amazed and inspired her, with it’s volcanic colours. She visited Paris several times between 1987 and 1993, where her portraits of the world turned black and white as she gathered rhythms and structures of the Sycamore trees.

In 1990 she was accepted as a student at The Academy of fine Art in Trondheim, Norway, with a series of colour photos from Iceland. Through her years as a student her experience with video production and video photography influenced her stills work, it still does and often bares witness to her special interest in "motion".

She also did several series of more "graphic photography", based on experimentation in the darkroom some during the months she studied at the Icelandic college of Art and Crafts in 1992. Brynhild graduated from The Academy of fine Art in 1994, as a painter, working with photo based paintings. She has been a self-employed professional visual artist based in Trondheim, Norway since 1995, and has since 1998 exclusively worked with photography.

In 2003 she lived in Bodø, Norway where she worked as a producer and facilitator for Art in Nordland, Nordland County Council. Meeting artists from all over the world gave her the opportunity to take a closer look at the contemporary art scene outside Trondheim. In 2005 she exhibited a body of work from this time called «Beginnings», some of the pictures marked a turning point in her art; a new way of thinking, more narrative with several layers and meanings.

In early photographic work Brynhild focused mainly on formal issues; colour, shape, composition keeping the conventional aspects most important, but in the naked photo Brynhild soon became aware of the "emptiness". As a result she wanted to combine content and depth with open and ambiguous motifs. A beautiful flower, a grand panoramic view, or a colourful interior are not interesting to her if there´s nothing more to the picture. She has spent many years trying to free herself from the "formal straight jacket", turning her pictures from pure aesthetics, to capturing people in situations.

Today she explores the possibilities within documental photography in art. Her initial point of view is the innate realistic essence of photography; the camera’s unique ability to register as well as reveal the perceptible or potentially perceptible reality. The term "straight photography" is often used to describe an attitude towards the photographic work within a tradition where the moment is the main theme, and the purpose is to portray reality as it appears to the lens. Brynhild’s pictures repeatedly portray human beings in passing, revealing a story or a situation that contains a whole life, a connection or a pattern in condensed form. Shooting only in digital format, she captures moments in time, and collects theme in her archive, using the camera and her photos as a tool of cognition and a way of dealing with reality.

As a professional artist she explores different topics. In the project «Women in Health- and Care Work» (2006-2007), she worked with female healthcare employees, and took photos of them in their work environement. In the project Landnåm (1998-2001), she took pictures of people and old Norse settlements in Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. In the project tarGET (1995-1998), she documented the process between the seven artist working together in an artist house in Iceland late summer of 1997.

She has had photos assignments for Nordland County Council, Levanger Council and Universitetsavisa. Her works have been exhibited many places in Scandinavia, and she’s about to have a book published with a collection of her Healthcare Project.

Brynhild has also worked as a Senior Executive Officer with design and development of internet solutions for The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, giving her a more editorial focus both on image and text. She has worked as a teacher for eight years in higher education within media, multimedia, aesthetics, web and software training. At the moment she teaches photography at a vocational training programme in Trondheim.

Since 2006 Brynhild has had the privilege to encounter an even more international scene in photography and meeting some of the greatest photographers of our time. She participated at The Nordic Light Photofestival 2006, Kristiansund, Norway, and most recently in a Magnum Masterclass workshop in Oslo. Through these meetings she feels she’s gained a greater understanding; a wider picture of what photography is about: using the camera as a story teller.

Brynhild is now working with a new project, which addresses the Norwegian lebensborn children, the children born during the second world war, with mothers from Norway and fathers from the occupants (mostly Germans). Meeting and talking to this group of people, and taking photos of their daily life today, is at the core of her practice. The project aims to question our understanding of the political and social situation in Norway, during and after the Second World War.

Written and published in 2007