In August, my wife, mother in law and myself traveled to Scandinavia to pay tribute to my late father in law, whose family immigrated from Sweden two generations ago. My wife Kristi who is a master travel planner arranged for a mix of city and nature to get a “good feeling” to a broad cultural perspective. We visited big cities in Denmark and Sweden and went Northwest in Norway to see magnificent nature.
From the outside one may be unaware of how prosperous and balanced Scandinavian countries are. In fact they continuously rank Globally in the top 5 for happiest, and highest quality of life. One might argue that their small populations, wealth and productivity help in the overall equation and yes they do, however that would miss the key and unique point about the people. Their culture is based on a social contract where social equality is key to the success of their countries.
Contrary to western belief that general wealth distribution results in lack of economic participation we see Scandinavia thriving and innovating in many areas. They are leaders in technology, energy as well as environment preservation. They have exceptionally high levels of education and health care that are available to everyone and high levels of safety. They have many reasons to be proud however they don’t boast about it, a reticence that I find fascinating.
They have some of the most innovative infrastructure projects including some of the largest multi-country over and under water bridges. They innovate in architecture with some of the most far out ideas such as building a ski slope on top of a nuclear plant in Copenhagen. They have been for a long time masters of design with purpose driven simplicity and elegance that is breathtaking. In many cases their design is driven by environmental benefits . They have some of the best restaurants in the world leading with their innovative views for gastronomy. Theirs is a history of fostering and welcoming creativity and purpose within innovation.
They are very committed to renewable energy and are closer than most countries in the developed world to zero emissions goals. They do this in service of preserving the beauty and nature that surrounds them. We didn’t see many plastic bottles, saw many riding on bicycles in DK, and a large amount of electric vehicles particularly in Norway. Their nature is pristine and conserving it that way a big source of pride.
And no one we met there would confuse their immense pride for brag. Bragging is a dirty word. Instead they are understated, simple and purposeful. No humble brag understatement, real understatement. In any other place it would be hard to think of understatement as a defining feature, but when you have so much going for you and you are not screaming about it it’s ok to give the world a taste of understatement.
My intention was to capture that simplicity, the purposeful design in my photos. The simple and modern design chairs laid out under a tree around foliage and weeds that haven’t been trimmed possibly ever. The single chair overlooking the harbor around an environment that may seem unkept, until one thinks about why does it need to be kept? The simple and modern rooms at the Louisiana museum that unpretentiously house one of the most complete collections of Giacommeti sculptures. The pristine fjords with the rare solitary house here and there. The solitude found in nature that underlines its majestic features. We had a taste of it and we are sure there’s much more to this seemingly perfect story. However we are happy with what we saw and what we learned, may even brag about it, only a little.
Guillermo Ceniceros Unbound 