Panu Johansson’s exhibition Shattered Marble reflects on changes in the northern landscape, presented as mosaic-like, Polaroid-based photographs. Johansson is fascinated by their process-oriented nature, uniqueness, lo-fi aesthetics and historical uses.
On display at the Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre’s Foyer gallery, this body of work records the transformation of the landscape in Sápmi, northern Norway, including the loss of glaciers. The works in the exhibition depict the Steindalsbreen glacier, located on the Ittunjárga (Lyngen) peninsula.
The loss of glaciers has consequences on both a global and a local scale. Rising sea levels are among the best-known of these.[1] Retreating glaciers also cause changes to local ecosystems: first, river discharge increases; eventually, the rivers dry up completely.[2] Glaciers are exclamation marks rising from the northern landscape, visual symbols that serve as reminders of the acute and irreversible change taking place right now. To see it, you do not always have to trek deep into the wilderness in Sápmi, and even those unfamiliar with the subject will clearly notice changes in the glaciers.
The exhibition’s pieces merge vastly different time scales. A photograph is often the documentation of a brief moment lasting less than a second, whereas the Steindalsbreen glacier is approximately 8,000 years old. The current reality has shown that neither is permanent. Johansson has chosen the Polaroid photograph as the technique for the works, a medium often associated with spontaneous holiday snaps and the capturing of fleeting moments.
The works in the exhibition have been created as Polaroid collages, as well as smaller pieces in which Johansson has utilised the Polaroid emulsion-lift technique. In the lift technique, the emulsion of a Polaroid photo is detached from the original image under warm water, after which the emulsion is transferred in the water onto a sheet of printmaking paper. The process results in a work that resembles both a painting and a photograph. The images created in this manner evoke a feeling of fleetingness – the landscape’s marble shatters in many senses of the word. Glaciers are visual elements that have dominated the landscape for millennia but may soon no longer be there.
The works in the exhibition were originally photographed in autumn 2025 during a residency at the Troms County guest studio. Many thanks to Troms County Cultural Centre!
[1] https://www.worldwildlife.org/resources/explainers/why-are-glaciers-and-sea-ice-melting/
[2] https://www.carbonbrief.org/glacier-melt-threatens-water-supplies-for-two-billion-people-un-warns/
Shattered Marble
Panu Johansson
9.5.-30.8.2026
Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre, Foyer gallery