Magne on stage with Dan and Martin, 3 October
(screenshot from Instagram video)

The Norwegian photographer Knut Bry celebrated his 80th birthday last weekend, Saturday 3 October.

a-ha fans will know him for taking the cover photos for the Scoundrel Days album (which incidentally was released 40 years ago this week) and the Time and Again – The Ultimate a-ha collection. He also followed them on tour in 1986, took various press photos and directed the music video for “I’ve Been Losing You”.

To celebrate him, an event was held at Carls in Oslo on 3 October, where a number of people appeared on stage to pay tribute to Bry. Among them was Magne Furuholmen, who performed together with Dan Sundhordvik on guitar and Martin Halla on vocals. Journalist and photographer Christina Skreiberg has shared a short video clip of them performing an acoustic version of “Take On Me” on Instagram.

“Knut wasn’t the first photographer to work with a-ha, but he was the first to make us wear hats. And that was at a point in our lives when we were very conscious about how our hair looked. Knut didn’t want any of that”, Magne said from the stage, according to a 6-page article in the newspaper Hallingdølen (paywall).

“Few people manage to become cooler and cooler as they get older. But you do”, he told Bry.

An extensive retrospective exhibition of Knut Bry’s photos – Reflections – will be held at the Preus Museum in Horten, Norway from 21 November 2026 – 16 May 2027. Bry has recently donated his entire photo archive to the museum, which contains around one million images.