Jon Tonks

10×10″ Signed Pigment Print (Edition of 25)

In 2016 I was commissioned by the New York Times Magazine to retrace the steps of Norwegian folk hero Jan Baalsrud.

He was a WW2 commando of the Norwegian resistance who led a task force of 12 to the Norwegian Fjords by fishing vessel – the aim was to blow up a German occupied airfield. They were rumbled, all arrested and executed apart from Jan, who evaded capture by the Nazi occupation for two months in extreme weather conditions – suffering frostbite and snow blindness. He was helped across the fjords and dragged up his mountain on a sled by local villagers who risked their lives to help him escape the country.

The weather conditions for me were considerably better.