The Brothers

When Elin Høyland heard about two elderly brothers, Harald and Mathias Ramen, living together in Tessanden,a small hamlet in rural Norway, she approached them to see if they would collaborate with her on a photographicproject about their lives. The result is a fascinating and warmly human study of a way of life that hasnow almost entirely disappeared.Harald (75) and Mathias (80) had always lived on the small farm in which they were born. Neither had married.Mathias once worked in Oslo for two months, but hadn¿t like it, whilst Harald spent one night, ¿the worst of hislife,¿ he would say, in a hotel in Lillehammer, some three hours away. They¿d worked for an electricity company,as loggers and also as carpenters, but now much of their time was taken up just managing firewood for theirhome. As Harald said, they chopped wood, carried wood and burned wood. At least twice a day, they also fedwild birds in the twenty bird boxes that they monitored. Their days followed a predictable and comfortingroutine. In their free time they each listened to a radio or read the local paper. In the 1960s they had rented aTV for a one month trial but returned it after deciding that it took up too much time. Little changed from yearto year, though Mathias once said that changes were happening the whole time and it would probably end upwith them getting an inside toilet with running water. Harald died from an asthma attack while shovelling snowin conditions of ¿20C. Mathias continued to live alone in the house until he moved into an old people¿s home.He died in 2007.Norwegian photographer, Elin Høyland has freelanced for several major newspapers including The Guardian.She is currently photographer with the Norwegian Business Daily and her work has been widely exhibited inboth Scandinavia and the UK. Gerry Badger is recognised world-wide as one of the leading writers on photography.Amongst his many projects he wrote the TV series The Genius of Photography and was co-author withMartin Parr of the two volume The Photobook: A History.