Green, green grass

From the late 1890s through the 1960s, several thousand people left the small coastal area of Lista to pursue the American Dream in the United States. Many settled in New York, where the borough of Brooklyn was once home to a thriving Norwegian community.

A large number of these emigrants eventually returned to Lista, bringing with them objects, language, and ways of life shaped by their time abroad. Over time, this exchange has formed a distinct American-influenced identity among the small population of the region.

Every year during the last weekend of June, the town of Vanse hosts the American Festival, drawing thousands of visitors who gather to take part in this unusual American retro culture. I have begun a photographic project documenting this environment and the traces it has left behind — in architecture, landscapes, and personalities — a cultural imprint that is slowly fading.