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Peter Beste's Black Metal photography
Many of Beste’s subjects stare at the camera directly, with an uncompromising coldness. Look at the captions to the photos and they reveal pseudonyms such as Nattefrost, Samoth and King Ov Hell.
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Some might find such material frightening and perplexing, others may find it mythic and powerful, still others would see it as ludicrous. It is to Beste’s credit that he avoids all these temptations in favour of developing a body of images that lay bare the ambiguities of the Norwegian black metal scene.
The most extreme images in the book are subtly qualified and questioned. Pictures of Nattefrost drunk and covered in his own shit are taken in his bathtub, as if to emphasise that his transgression is contained within the most mundane of objects. There is bathos here, but also vulnerability. The same is true of the many pictures taken of black metallers in the Norwegian countryside: in the woods, on mountains and in the snow, many of the subjects are made to appear small and insignificant (or quite simply cold).
The contradictions inherent in black metal’s simultaneous celebration of untamed nature and untamed humanity are revealed in the insignificance of the black metaller next to the potency of nature.
Frost of Satyricon, Cave in Nesodden, 2004
King of Gorgoroth, Sorta, 2004
Nattefrost of Carpathian Forest, Sandness, 2002
Nattefrost in his Bathtub, Oslo, 2005
Kvitrafn of Wardruna, Bergen, 2002
Abbath of Immortal, Os, 2007
Gaahl, Espedal, 2007
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Originally Posted by Heretik
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