Lars Erik Nordvik

I grew up in Svolvær with the smell of stockfish as a constant in my childhood. My father fished skrei in winter. The summers belonged to the tourists. The winters belonged to us.

Lofoten has over the past ten years become one of the world's most photographed travel destinations. That is both wonderful and problematic. Wonderful because the islands deserve the attention. Problematic because the image being spread is not of Lofoten as it actually is. It is of Lofoten as seen through a wide-angle camera in golden hour.

At NorgeTravel, I write about the other Lofoten: the skrei fishing in January, the rorbuer that smell of wood and salt, and the man on the dock in Henningsvær who can tell you more about the sea than any guide.

I also write about the logistics. The Bodø ferry is the only ferry in the world where I have seen people cry from seasickness and astonishment at the landscape at the same time.