Nicolai Howalt, LIGHT BREAK – PHOTOGRAPHY / LIGHT THERAPY, 2015

Howalt’s fascination of Finsen’s experiments and apparatus is based on the obvious similarities between the basic elements of photography and Finsen’s medical phototherapy. In both cases, light rays are passed through specially crafted lenses and filters onto photosensitive material. Finsen discovered that invisible light rays, at the periphery of the electromagnetic spectrum, had the property to heal. It is these same rays Howalt is interested in, now taking advantage of the sunlight’s ability to blacken photographic emulsion.

Danish poet Morten Søndergaard (b. 1964) contributes with three poems, published here for the first time. Howalt and Søndergaard share a fascination of the power of the sun, of light as both subject and substance and fundamental condition for all life. Two articles, one by Dr. Tania Woloshyn (UK) and the other by Ion Meyer, Medical Museion in Copenhagen, present Howalt’s Light Break project to a wider audience, placing Howalt’s groundbreaking work in the context of both Medical and Art History.