Following a severe brain infection and complications from tick bites, the Norwegian journalist and photographer spent years living with the long aftereffects of illness. The physical world around her narrowed to an 80-meter radius — a circle that would later become the quiet frame for her first artist’s book. ANIMA is a portrait of resilience and light. A contemplation on this thing we call life.
“I could not walk far, so I learned to go deeper"
- Ingeborg Løvdal
Drawn by the wild storms and the mesmerizing light of her upbringing, Ingeborg Løvdal returned to Norway’s west coast at the age of 37, having left her hometown already at 17. What began as a dream of refuge — an untouched island shore, new and unknown to both herself, her husband and two young children— slowly turned into a personal struggle.
In indigenous traditions Anima resonates with the idea that everything is alive — not only humans and animals, but also stones, trees, oceans and winds. These beliefs do not separate the soul, anima, from the world, but rather see the world itself as ensouled. All elements of nature carry a spirit, essence, or consciousness, humans are not felt as separate from nature, but participants in a shared field of spirit. In this sense, anima is not just something inside us — it is also around us, between us, and within everything we touch. It is the receptive, feeling, creative current beneath the surface. Anima speaks to what cannot be named. It is what shimmers beneath the visible.