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 with tattoos sitting on a bed, smiling, with a wooden wall background.
A person is holding up their black jacket to reveal a large Nazi eagle tattoo with a swastika on their chest.
A man with a beard and wearing a leather jacket and a hat, standing outside with sunlight casting shadow on his face, with reflections of city buildings and another man behind a glass window.

From the Ukraine Project
These artworks form part of a wider photographic art project documenting the atmosphere of Odesa, Ukraine, and the lives of those living on the edge of society during the war.

Black Depression

Project

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 project 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.

Three people standing on a city sidewalk at night, some holding umbrellas. One man in the foreground is wearing a beige jacket and black beanie, looking at the camera. Two others are in the background near a chain-link fence, one holding a transparent umbrella and the other with a backpack.
A man with a beard and disheveled hair, dressed in dark clothing and a puffy jacket, sitting under an overpass on a rainy night, with cars parked nearby.
A woman with black hair and tattoos, wearing a tan fringed jacket and a gray crop top, stands against a textured wall. She's looking upward with a serious expression.
A man with disheveled curly hair and a beard, wearing a red sweater, shows a gruesome, infected wound on his arm, in a dark alley behind a chain-link fence.
A man with long blond hair, tattoos, and a white T-shirt that says "Zombies! Juice" in blood-spattered font, standing outdoors against a dark background and brick wall.
A person in a black hoodie and black clothing crouches on a wet sidewalk at night, adjacent to a large stone building. They are looking down, with their face partially obscured by the hoodie, and appear to be homeless.
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Tiraspol

Project

I spent day after day walking the streets of Tiraspol, from early morning until nightfall, moving through a city by meeting its people face to face. I moved slowly, stopping often, letting encounters unfold. Faces emerged from the quiet rhythm of the streets, marked by time, routine, and the weight of a place that exists in political limbo yet remains deeply lived.

Pridnestrovie, also known as Transnistria, is unrecognized by the world, but undeniably real to those who inhabit it. Backed by Russia and cut off from the global banking system. No Visa. No Mastercard. Only the Transnistrian ruble. Life moves slowly here, and that slowness settles into the faces you meet.

The Soviet legacy is etched into the people as much as into the architecture. You see it in posture, in reserve, in a certain steadiness of gaze. Brutalist concrete looms in the background, but it is the human presence that holds the frame. The past has not disappeared; it lives on in the faces that look back at you.

And yet, within these encounters, something quietly contemporary appears. A humor, a softness, an oddity. Moments that feel slightly out of time, slightly surreal. Not nostalgia. Not documentation. Just presence.

An older man with gray hair and a beard, dressed in a gray blazer, is standing on a city street, smelling or inspecting his fingers, with a worried or distressed expression. The background shows cars, a building, and a sign with Cyrillic text.
A man wearing sunglasses and a black t-shirt stands outdoors against a beige wall. He has a beard and gray hair, and appears to be looking to the side, with a serious expression.

Books

On the Bookshelf

Tyheim’s art books cut straight to the bone, raw portraits of city life that most people walk past without a second glance. Each artwork 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 homeless person with long, curly gray hair sitting on the ground, holding a syringe, near a chain-link fence on a dark street.
A person with red hair, wearing a black hat, black jacket, and a beaded necklace, looks upwards with a distressed expression in front of a metal fence and a cityscape background.
A man wearing a cap, jacket, and brown leather bag across his shoulder, standing outdoors with a background of power lines, buildings, and a clear blue sky.
A woman with short brown hair and light skin, wearing a black and gray varsity jacket with the letter 'A' on it, stands in front of a red and white wall.
Books

Gothenburg Faces

Art Book

For over a year, Tyheim has roamed the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden. His art book 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 artworks, 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.

Two young women with long hair and dark makeup pose outside a building, with reflections and city scenery in the glass window behind them.
People standing in line outside a building, with some looking at their phones. The scene is near a glass entrance and an elderly woman is in the foreground.
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Plur Blow

Signed Art Book

These works form part of a larger photographic artwork created at Sana Duri in Gothenburg, Sweden, and later released in book form. Within the book, the images are paired with first-person accounts drawn from the Reddit forum r/aves, recollections marked by intensity, absurdity, and dark humor.

The book is produced as a limited, signed edition, issued in direct correspondence with each individual artwork. Hand-sewn in Palermo, Italy, it draws on longstanding binding traditions and a material-led approach to bookmaking. Carefully selected paper and a considered production process allow material, image, and text to cohere into a single, tactile work shaped as much by craft as by concept.

The signed book is made accessible exclusively through the acquisition of an artwork from the Plur Blow series.

A man and woman kissing, with another woman looking on, in a club or party setting.
A woman with long blonde hair, wearing pink sunglasses, an orange tank top, holding a phone, and displaying a surprised or confused expression. She has tattoos on her arm and is standing against a black background.
A shirtless man with a beard and chest hair, and a tattoo of a bear on his chest, standing next to a woman with dark hair wearing a black sports bra. Both are against a dark background.
Close-up of a woman with black hair in the foreground, with a man wearing reflective blue sunglasses, a suit, and a blue tie, and a woman with blonde hair in the background at a nighttime event.
A group of young adults celebrating shirtless against a dark background, with one person making a peace sign and others smiling and enjoying themselves.

Curated Works

Limited Edition

Selected through international curatorial review and produced to the highest fine-art standards. Each work is available for acquisition as a numbered, archival artwork, never reproduced beyond its edition.

A person with tattoos on their hands, chest, and abdomen lifting a gray shirt to reveal a tattoo of a stylized butterfly on their stomach.
Group of people with dark hair and makeup, some with bright red hair, leaning over and looking down at something on the ground, on a city street at night.
Two men in winter clothing outdoors on a city street. One man in a beige coat and the other in a black jacket with a pink hood, talking to each other.
People walking on a city street with overcast skies, including a woman holding shopping bags and a man holding a phone.
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