Ty-[heim]

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 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.

Drawn to the raw and often overlooked individuals who inhabit the urban landscape, Tyheim frames the textures of real life: faces marked by collision, expressions suspended between vulnerability and defiance.

Working with a Leica M11, he approaches the street as both stage and canvas. His work doesn’t simply document; it confronts the viewer with an unvarnished reality, at once beautiful and brutal.

A shirtless man with tattoos on his chest and arms, sitting outside near a trailer, looking at the camera.
A man with a goatee and a cap showing a Nazi tattoo on his side, pulling up his shirt in an outdoor urban setting.

Odesa, Ukraine / Nov. 2025 - Present
Ongoing body of work

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

Philadelphia, U.S. / Oct. 2025 - Present
Ongoing body of work

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.

A man with a beard in a black beanie and tan jacket is under a bridge or overpass, holding a cigarette. Two women are nearby, one with an umbrella, standing against a chain-link fence on a rainy night.
A man with a beard and wet hair wearing dark clothing and a black puffer jacket standing under a bridge or overpass on a rainy day in an urban setting.
A woman with black hair, tattoos, and a black hair bonnet posing against a textured wall, wearing a brown fringed jacket over a purple crop top.
Elderly man wearing a black wide-brimmed hat, large glasses, a dark suit, white shirt, and gold necklace, standing in front of a metallic shutter.
A man with long blonde hair and tattoos, wearing a white t-shirt with blood-splattered text that reads 'ZOMBIES! FJUGE,' stands against a dark door and brick wall background.
A woman with red hair, wearing a black beanie and dark clothing, standing against a black metal fence, with an expressive face and looking upward.

Tiraspol

Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie / June 2025

I moved slowly, 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.

Pridnestrovie 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 Pridnestrovian ruble. Life moves slowly here, and that slowness settles into the faces you meet.

The Soviet legacy is etched into the people. 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. An oddity. Moments that feel slightly out of time, slightly surreal.

An elderly man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a gray blazer, is scratching his nose with his right hand while standing on a city street. There are cars and a sign with Russian text in the background.

Books

On the Bookshelf

Each artwork drags the overlooked into the spotlight, exposing the grit and tension etched into every face. These aren’t just photographs; they’re fragments of the human condition, unfiltered and unapologetically real.

Man with a beard wearing a leather jacket and a cap, standing behind a glass window with reflections of a street scene and a man in a green jacket on the other side.
A young man with a beard and tattoos on his face is standing against a textured wall, looking directly at the camera in a black jacket.
Books

Gothenburg
Faces

Signed Book / Sept. 2023

His 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.

A group of women waiting in line outside a store, with some looking at their phones and others engaging in conversation, under an overcast sky.
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Plur Blow

Signed Book / Aug. 2024

These works form part of a larger photographic project created at Sana Duri in Gothenburg, Sweden, and published 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 signed version is produced as a limited edition, issued in direct correspondence with each individual artwork. Each signed edition is hand-sewn in Palermo, Italy, drawing 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 edition is available exclusively through the acquisition of an artwork from the Plur Blow series.

A regular edition of the book is available for purchase at 89books.

A blonde woman with slightly wavy hair wearing pink sunglasses, an orange top, holding a smartphone in her right hand, and wearing a black scrunchie on her right wrist, standing against a dark background.

Curated
Works

Limited Editions

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 woman with black hair, wearing a black top, beige skirt, and carrying a large paper bag, looking at the camera while standing on a busy city street during cloudy weather. A man with light brown hair, wearing a green shirt and beige pants, walks past her, holding a phone in his hand. Several other people are visible in the background.
Group of people looking down at something on the ground at an outdoor event or concert.
A person lifting their shirt to reveal a large tattoo of a dragon on their stomach, with tattoos on their fingers and wrist. They are wearing a brown jacket and have a pearl bracelet on their left wrist.
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