Tyheim

Vidar Korneliussen, aka Tyheim is a Norwegian contemporary photographer whose work exists at the intersection of art and documentary.

Blending the raw immediacy of street portraiture with a deeply artistic sensibility, his images are both expressive works of photographic art and unflinching documents of urban life. They are shaped by the emotional and aesthetic concerns of art, yet grounded in the observational precision of documentary photography. Rather than explain or label, he explores the human condition in all its complexity, always with a distinctly documentary undertone.

Drawn to the raw and often overlooked individuals who inhabit the urban landscape, Tyheim captures the textures of real life: faces marked by experience, expressions suspended between vulnerability and defiance. Each portrait becomes a study in presence, cutting through pretense to reveal something deeply human.

Working with a Leica M11, he approaches the street as both stage and canvas. His photographs don’t simply document; they immerse the viewer in an unvarnished reality, at once beautiful and brutal. Through this lens, fleeting encounters become powerful visual narratives, steeped in authenticity and emotional resonance.

A shirtless man sitting on a bed, smiling with his eyes closed, showing tattoos on his chest, arms, and shoulders. The background includes a plain wall and a pillow.
A man pulling up his shirt to reveal a tattoo of a Nazi eagle with a swastika on his chest, standing on a city street with buildings and people in the background.

From the Ukraine Project
Portraits shaped by the quiet tremors of Odesa, where lives drift along the edges of a city at war.

Black Depression

Photobook: In Progress

Kensington, Philadelphia is one of the most brutal neighborhoods in the United States. It’s a place torn apart by fentanyl, street violence, poverty, and systemic failure. Homicides are common. Overdoses happen in the open. People live, and often collapse, on the sidewalks. The atmosphere is heavy, desperate, and raw.

This photobook is shaped by that depression and disintegration. It reflects what it feels like to stand inside that world: close, uncomfortable, and real, yet strangely vibrant, colorful, and, in its own way, beautiful. These are visual expressions of despair, not explanations of it. Nothing is staged. Nothing is embellished. This is art pulled from the edge.

A man with a beard and beanie looks into the camera on a rainy city sidewalk, while a woman with umbrella waits nearby.
A man standing outdoors at night under a street or parking lot structure, wearing a black puffy jacket, with wet hair and face, looking at the camera.
A woman with red hair and pale skin, wearing a black beanie and a black jacket, standing against a chain-link fence. She has an expression of anger or frustration, with her mouth open and eyes looking upward. She's wearing a graphic T-shirt with the words 'I HATE MY JOB!'。」}
A woman with blonde hair, tattoos, and a distressed face, wearing a brown jacket with fringe, a gray crop top, and pearl bracelet, standing against a plain wall.
Young man with a beard, tattoos on his face, wearing a black jacket, standing against a textured wall with black and white sections.
A man with long blond hair and tattoos on his neck and hand, wearing a white t-shirt with a graphic design, standing against a black background with a door lock visible.
Black Depression

Books

On the Bookshelf

Tyheim’s photobooks cut straight to the bone, raw portraits of city life that most people walk past without a second glance. Each image drags the overlooked into the spotlight, exposing the grit, tension, and quiet dignity etched into every face. These aren’t just photographs; they’re fragments of the human condition, unfiltered and unapologetically real.

A shirtless man with tattoos, including a large wolf on his chest, sitting on a bed in a room with a pillow and some clothing.
Books

Tiraspol

Project

I spent day after day walking the streets of Tiraspol, from early morning until nightfall, moving through a place that exists in political limbo yet pulses with everyday life.

Pridnestrovie, also known as Transnistria: unrecognized by the world, but deeply real to those who call it home. Backed by Russia and cut off from the global banking system. No Visa. No Mastercard. Only the Transnistrian ruble. Life moves slowly here. The streets are calm, the city meticulously clean, and time seems to stretch, unhurried, almost generous.

Everywhere, you are surrounded by Soviet-era brutalism: raw concrete structures, monumental in scale, stoic in their silence. The architecture speaks of a past that never left. The Soviet legacy isn’t just remembered here; it’s lived. You feel it in the geometry of the buildings, in the stillness, in the rhythm of daily life. And yet, layered over the weight of the past is something oddly modern, quirky, out of place, almost surreal. A strange blend of past and present. It’s not nostalgia. It’s presence.

An elderly man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a gray blazer, is looking down and touching his nose, standing outside on a sidewalk with cars and a building in the background.
Tiraspol

Gothenburg Faces

Photobook

For over a year, Tyheim has roamed the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden. His photobook Gothenburg Faces delves into the city's soul. Each page offers a visceral journey through portraits that reveal the often-overlooked beauty of everyday encounters.

Featuring more than 50 images, this book is more than just a collection of photographs. It’s a powerful narrative steeped in authenticity, breathing life into the raw human essence of Gothenburg.

Line of people waiting outside a store with a glass storefront. A woman with styled hair and leather jacket is in the foreground, while other women and an elderly man are in line behind her. The store has books and toys visible inside.
View in Shop

Plur Blow

Photobook

Get pulled into the sweat-soaked heart of rave culture with this forthcoming photobook, a collision of flash, flesh, and fevered rhythm. These images hit hard, capturing the split-second chaos of nights lived at full volume. Every frame is a punch of reality: no filters, no staging, just the pulse of the underground laid bare in all its beautiful disorder.

Woman with long blonde hair, wearing pink sunglasses and an orange top, holding a smartphone, against a black background.
A woman in a pink patterned shirt kissing a shirtless man while another woman in a blue bikini looks on.
A shirtless man with blue eyes and an open mouth is being hugged by a woman with wet hair, surrounded by smiling people in a dark background.
A group of people at a party or concert with tattoos and hats, standing in front of a dark background.
Plur Blow

Prints

Limited Edition Prints

Each photograph is part of a curated edition of 400, created in collaboration with leading curators from around the world. Printed in Stockholm on Hahnemühle Fine Art Baryta, these works unite exceptional craftsmanship with enduring archival quality.

Explore the collection and discover prints produced with the care and permanence that define true collector’s editions.

Woman lifting her shirt to reveal a large tattoo on her stomach.
Group of young people leaning forward, heads close together, appearing to look at something on the ground in an urban setting.
Two men on a city street under an overpass at night, one wearing a beige jacket and the other in a black jacket with a pink hood, seated and engaged in conversation.
Prints