He hangs high — but who is the man in yellow?
Who is this fellow who has mysteriously been climbing up and down lamp posts along the E10, crouching by the roadside in his yellow overalls? Drivers are a little uncertain, and speed reduces immediately.
Yellow by the roadside makes most of us a little more alert than usual. For a week and a half, sightings of a man in a yellow jumpsuit have had passers-by asking wondering questions. Some have dared to ask directly, while others have only cast curious glances. With a ladder under his arm and a bag on his back, the man has been spotted along the E10 in Kabelvåg. Yesterday evening the man received a phone call from the police, who had received reports from the public about the sightings.
"There have been many questions from people passing by, but sometimes I see they are curious without daring to ask. I really enjoy talking to people about what I do, because I find it fascinating myself," the man says enthusiastically. Outgoing as he is, he asks passers-by whether they'd like to know what he is up to — and most say yes.
Beer cans
That morning the traffic by the Lofoten Cathedral was calm. At times the man in yellow sat by the roadside with his tripod taking aim, and moments later climbed the ladder and mounted cans on lamp posts across the road.
"Presis were the first to get in touch by phone and asked whether I had permission to climb the posts. I'm proud to say that permission from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration is in place."
Happy with people and with a big smile, he is himself curious about what people think he is doing.
"Most have no idea, and then I take out the beer cans I put up," he explains with a sly smile. Some speculate whether the cans are full; others wonder whether they contain gas.
"The cans are empty, sealed at the top with the bottom of another can. In the middle of the can there is a hole. People still don't know what this is. Then I tell them it is actually a homemade camera," says Thomas Lafuente — the name of the man in yellow who has created so many questions, and partially slowed traffic.
An old technique
The beer can conceals an old analogue photography technique called Pinhole Photography — a simple camera with no lens and a small aperture.
"All the cans are numbered, and I'm now up to can 122. The first 100 have been placed at various spots in Kabelvåg and around Lofoten. The next cans up to number 220 are to go along the main road," says Lafuente.
The explanation that the beer cans are a camera remains a little hard to grasp for most.
"This camera works a bit like an eye, only very simplified. The can is like the eyeball, the hole is like the pupil, and light-sensitive photographic paper inside receives the light on the other side of the hole — a bit like the retina captures visual impressions."
Photo artist
Thomas Lafuente has lived in Norway for the past twelve years, and is half Polish and half French. In 2021 he graduated from the Film Arts School in Kabelvåg, where he now has his own studio working on projects as a photo artist.
"I work across a perspective of several months, where the photographic paper is exposed over six months. What I am interested in is the movement of the sun across the sky. The sun paints lines every day, and each day the lines climb higher on the paper. The image becomes a portrait of time, with the sun's movement capturing six months in a single picture," says Lafuente.
The artist describes the images as a kind of meteorological recording, blended with photography, chemistry and science — where you can see when it has been sunny and when it has been overcast.
"Pinhole Photography is a fantastic mix of disciplines that I find absolutely extraordinary," he says, adding that his acquaintance with this fundamental technique began at a folk high school.
Five years after he first tested the old method, he is in full swing specialising, and intends to spend the time ahead innovating the technique. The project requires quite a few materials and is time-consuming.
"Among other things, I have received funding from the Norwegian Professional Photographers' Fund, and am writing applications to several other funds and foundations. The project is in a major testing phase, which is why the beer cans are placed so closely together."
"I want to see if I can transform this photography technique into film. For that I need a structure that repeats over a long distance — which is why the lamp posts became the option. Each image from each beer can will be assembled into a sequence, a so-called hyperlapse, a type of time-lapse in motion."
Home
The artist is in the most important phase of his life, having realised that art is such a large part of him that he wants to devote his time to establishing his own art practice in the local community he has grown so fond of.
"Just before I came to Norway, I attended a French secondary school in India. I wanted to experience something new, something very different, and was tipped off about the folk high school system in Norway," says Lafuente.
A folk high school in the south led to a film arts school in the north, and since then Kabelvåg has been home.
"It feels good. I have everything I need — job opportunities, an arts community, clean air, clean and extreme nature," he says, radiating a rare enthusiasm.
Bad weather he sees only as an invitation to go inside and be creative, and the joy on days when the weather is good becomes all the greater.
"For now, I stay and remain open to life and change, without knowing what the future holds."
Positivity
A big smile under his cap and a dance-like joy of uninhibited character as he climbs the ladder.
"I really love sharing my enthusiasm for life in general — being fascinated by small things and expressing it out loud. It creates positive energy around me. Life happens, life can be tough and serious, and many people take things a little too seriously as they get older. The joy one had as a child often gets lost along the way, and the loss can make people unhappy," says Lafuente with a certain gravity.
The artist is one of the initiators of Silent Disco, where the aim is to create an environment where people can be themselves and reconnect with the inner child that everyone has.
The next time you pass the man in the yellow suit by the E10 — whether climbing posts or sitting with a tripod by the roadside — your pulse may not rise quite as much as last time. Perhaps you can even strike up a conversation about the project and test whether the enthusiasm is contagious.