Focus on Kristine Nyborg!

Photojournalist Kristine Nyborg was our Distinguished Speaker on September 17 and what a great storyteller she turned out to be! Pictured above is Kristine showing one of the photos she took during her time following Sigrid Erkan’s preparations to run the Iditarod sled-dog race. The Iditarod is a gruelling race that takes 8 to 15 days to run from Anchorage, Alaska to Nome. Kristine immersed herself completely in this story, staying with Sigrid for a year as she prepared for the race in the tiny, isolated hamlet of Eureka, Alaska and helping her with her dogs. They had no running water or hydro and of course no cell phone! Kristine then followed along the gruelling race for 10 days, during which Sigrid barely slept, broke her nose, and suffered a concussion and food poisoning.

Kristine continues to tell Sigrid’s story as a photojournalist now that Sigrid has moved on to farming Scottish highland cattle with her husband and young children in an isolated area of central Norway.

Previously, Kristine’s work in New York led to many other interesting experiences, including photographing the official visit of King Harald V of Norway to the White House under the presidency of George W. Bush.

Her life of adventure took a different turn when she gave birth to three children within 15 months, including a set of twins. Without the independence and freedom to follow her usual photojournalist instincts, she turned to documenting life as a mother of small children. Rather than focusing solely on the beauty of that experience, she wanted to show the weird, difficult, and uncomfortable parts, as she puts it. Some of these photos were recently displayed at an exhibition at Ottawa City Hall. She included a number of them in a book, which she had brought along for us to look at. Kristine deliberately chose to make the pages a variety of different sizes to give a sense of the constant interruptions which are such a big part of motherhood. Very effective! This book and some of her prints are available for sale on her website at https://www.kristinenyborg.com/, which also features her blog and a number of her articles.

Kristine was a truly engaging speaker and we very much enjoyed her talk and chatting with her afterwards. She was, of course, presented with the coveted CNS mug by President Trygve Ringereide and me (Councillor Hilde Huus.) Thank you to Marian McLennan for this photo and the one above!