Captured by the Norwegians

The 1953 edition of Captured by the Norwegians by Robert A. Robinson, has been re-published by Norwegian publishers Aki Books & Flamme Forlag. As well as reproducing the previous edition, this new book also includes new texts by David Campany, Frode Grytten and a personal interview with Robinsons long time friend Dan Young. This edition has also been published in Norwegian, under the title Tatt av Norge.

Captured by the Norwegians was conceived in 1953. The publisher decided that no restriction of any sort should be placed upon the author. He therefore looked at Norway freely through impartial eyes, and the result is a volume of pictures by one who came as a stranger and stayed as a friend.

“Robinson’s photographs are also reminiscent of those included in the ‘Family of Man’ and it is tempting to see Captured by the Norwegians as a local expression of the same sentiments but the comparison is complex. Steichen aimed to subsume national identity in a new globalized oneness that skirted politics and ideology in favour of a utopian common round of experience. Many accused it of sentimentalism, political naivety and a deep Americanism that was actually far from international. By comparison Robinson’s book is a humble vision that makes so few claims for itself. I find it an honest, unpretentious and endearing account of one person’s experience and expression. But maybe it has taken that half a century to re-realise this.”

— David Campany