Marius Schultz's 'Red-Haired Girls' Series Explores Time and Nature Through Annual Portraits

Norwegian photographer Marius Schultz has developed a long-term series titled 'Red-Haired Girls,' documenting two sisters with distinctive red hair annually within Norwegian landscapes. The project, which began when Schultz approached the strangers on the street with their mother's permission, explores themes of growth, identity, and belonging through subtle transformations over time. Schultz works exclusively with natural light and a handheld Mamiya 7 medium format camera, using the same equipment consistently to create continuity. His approach emphasizes intuition and emotional presence over technical perfection, with color palettes derived directly from northern light and seasons without post-processing manipulation. The series shows the girls evolving from childhood to young adulthood, with their increasing self-awareness becoming visible in posture and gaze. Schultz cites influences including Nicholas Nixon's 'The Brown Sisters' project and Norwegian painters Nikolai Astrup and Edvard Munch, though his work maintains its own distinct voice. He is a member of Forbundet Frie Fotografer and has received both the LensCulture Portfolio Award and Oslo Fotografihuset Award. His 2017 book 'A Conversation with Nature' launched at Paris Photo. The photographer lives and works in Oslo, where he continues to explore how landscape functions as emotional terrain rather than mere geography.