Mette Karlsvik

Darkroom

Mørkerom

Hence, another beginning. Hundred billions of cells split, rest, split again. It happens everywhere, all the time, when space bodies collide, when people
meet, and in the darkroom, when split filters create a single print. These are elements that come together in the story of the darkroom; the story of a
father, his daughter and their family. In the darkroom, they make images from film. Images from adolescence, about times changing a family and society.
And all the time human beings are being created and born. People coming to life as cells split. People dying as cells split malevolently. Darkroom is a story about belonging and about losing and missing that one glance that used to see you, and that fixed you to a film.
Through photography and memories, “Mette” tries to reconstruct the life of her father. From beginning to the day he died. With him, dies the sympathetic
eyes that made her proud of whom she was, and that reminded her of the good in life. May she find back to herself through telling the story?
Darkroom is a novel about being seen and learning to see. It thematises memory, identity and family relations. The language is suitably sensitive,
moulding out a story about beloved ones as mirrors in which one sees oneself, and about making art from darkness.

“I have an album with photos of all I have loved. It is a catalogue of ways to love. No way resemble the other. No page in the album is empty, as no room in my heart feels empty. But then you start the fading out."

Karlsvik mørkerom hd
Karlsvik, mette photo tove k. breistein
Photo: Tove K. Breistein

Mette Karlsvik (born 1978) had her literary debut in 2015 with Vindauga i matsalen vender mot fjorden, for which she was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas’ debut
prize. In 2011 she was awarded both Stig Sæterbakken memorial prize, The Booksellers stipendium and the Skien Municipality annual artist prize, and
she was nominated to the prestigious Brage Prize for Bli Björk. She writes books in all disciplines and genres, like fiction, non-fiction and children’s literature, and also works as a journalist.