J. Aalto
A trawler moored in fog at the harbour wall in Vardø, its rigging fading into white.

Jonas AaltoDocumentary photographer, Tromsø

Salt LedgerVardø & Båtsfjord, 2019 — ongoing

Selected
work

Twelve photographs from four projects along the Barents, Norwegian and Baltic coasts, 2012 — 2024.

An older man mending a fishing net, hands blurred with motion.
The Net MenderBåtsfjord, Norway — 2021
An iced-over pier stretching into a dark sea.
Pier, FebruaryVardø, Norway — 2020
Rows of drying cod hanging from wooden racks under a low sky.
HjellHenningsvær, Lofoten — 2018
A young deckhand in oilskins looking past the camera.
Eirik, 19Barents Sea — 2022
Light falling through smoke inside a timber smokehouse.
SmokehouseKaskinen, Finland — 2014
Gulls scattered against a storm sky over the breakwater.
BreakwaterHirtshals, Denmark — 2016
A kitchen table with coffee cups and a tide table by the window.
Tide TablesVardø, Norway — 2019
Buyers standing among crates in a fish auction hall at dawn.
Auction, 05:40Hirtshals, Denmark — 2016
A single lit window in a row of houses during polar night.
Polar NightBåtsfjord, Norway — 2023
Oilskin jackets hanging on hooks in a boat shed.
Shed, HooksTórshavn, Faroe Islands — 2017
A woman in a headscarf walking along the harbour road in wind.
Ragnhild, Harbour RoadVardø, Norway — 2021
Close detail of a rusting hull and a painted registration number.
F-41-BDBåtsfjord, Norway — 2022
A flat horizon over the Barents Sea with a single boat on the line.
“A town that lives off the sea keeps two calendars. One on the kitchen wall, and one in the water.” — From the notebooks, Vardø, 2020
Featured project — 2019 to present

Salt
Ledger

Five winters in Vardø and Båtsfjord, two towns at the far end of Norway where the quota decides who stays. Salt Ledger follows the families who keep the harbours running as the boats get bigger and the crews get smaller.

Format
Medium format, Ilford HP5 & Delta 3200
Book
Forlaget Nordkyst, 2023 · 132 pp.
Supported by
Fritt Ord, Arts Council Norway
The harbour in Vardø seen from the hill, boats frozen in.
I. Harbour from Kiberg roadJan 2019

“My grandfather fished from here with eleven other boats. When I started this, there were three. Now there is a factory trawler that comes in twice a month.”

Arvid Mikkelsen, retired skipper, Vardø

Weathered hands resting on a kitchen table.
II. Arvid’s handsMar 2019
Workers at a filleting line under fluorescent light.
III. Night shift, fillet lineNov 2020
A small wooden boat on land half-buried in snow.
IV. Laid upFeb 2021
Children waiting for a school bus in blowing snow.
V. 07:55, BåtsfjordJan 2022
A king crab held up on deck against a dark sea.
VI. King crab, first catchOct 2022
An empty quay with a single lamp at dusk.
VII. Quay, last lightDec 2023
01 / 08
Contact sheet frame: rope coiled on a deck. Contact sheet frame: a church spire above snowy roofs. Contact sheet frame: boots lined up at a door. Contact sheet frame: a radio on a wheelhouse shelf. Contact sheet frame: waves breaking over rocks. Contact sheet frame: a girl holding a fish by the gills.
Portrait of Jonas Aalto in a wool coat on a windy harbour.
Jonas Aalto, Vardø, 2022. Photo: Siri Hætta

About

I go back to the same harbours year after year until people stop noticing the camera, and start telling me what the sea has taken.

I grew up in Rauma, on the Finnish west coast, where my father worked the Baltic herring boats until the last of them was sold. That is probably why I keep returning to towns at the point where the fishing is ending, or changing into something else.

I work slowly, on film, and almost always in winter. Each project takes between four and seven years. I am based in Tromsø and teach documentary practice at the Nordic Photography School in Oslo.

Publications

  • Salt Ledger, Forlaget Nordkyst
  • “The Quota Towns”, 14-page portfolio, Nordic Light Quarterly
  • Hjell, Kehrer-style monograph, Lofoten Books
  • “After Herring”, Helsingin Viikko magazine
  • The Kaskinen Winters, self-published, ed. of 300

Exhibitions

  • Salt Ledger, Kunsthall Nordnorge, Tromsø
  • Fotogalleriet Kvadrat, Oslo
  • Nordic Documentary Biennial, Copenhagen (group)
  • Hjell, Lofoten Kulturhus, Svolvær
  • Finnish Photo Centre, Helsinki

Write to
me

Commissions & licensing

Nordkyst Agency
Marit Solheim
marit@nordkyst-agency.example
+47 912 34 567

Prints & gallery

Fotogalleriet Kvadrat, Oslo
prints@kvadrat-gallery.example

Studio

Storgata 88, 9008 Tromsø, Norway
studio@jonasaalto.example