Slash and Burn is a photographic art book by Terje Abusdal, whose photos introduce you to Finnskogen – “The Forest of the Finns” – on the Norwegian-Swedish border. From the 16th century onwards, a large number of Finnish slash-and-burn farmers, or Forest Finns, moved to the area, and their cultural heritage was often seen as a reflection of Eastern mysticism and shamanistic traditions. Abusdal’s powerful photographs examine the beliefs associated with Forest Finns while investigating what it is like to be a Forest Finn today, after more than 400 years and 12 generations.
Terje Abusdal (b. 1978) is an Oslo-based visual storyteller whose projects often fall between fiction and fact. He has won the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award, and Slash and Burn has been awarded the Nordic Dummy Award 2017.
