LATEST SERIES [information on the Revised Series is further below]

Odyssey – 2025
Stories, legends, myths, they are around us, nowadays, from the past (but less obviously than those from movies or series from streaming services). They are somewhere below our consciousness. They are those stories coming from more than 2000 years ago, even much much further away, such as the legends telling about the adventures of Gilgamesh or Odysseys, and the basis of those stories is always the same, humans are searching for something which cannot be found or fulfilled, often eternal life. Sailing with my friends along the Croatian coast was the starting point for this series.

Park – 2025
Parks, trees, flowers, all plants, fascinate me. Several times, I’ve tried to catch the feeling associated with these creatures. Here, I had my iPhone, and I think I got close what I intend to. The photos contain elements made with Photoshop AI.

White Building – 2024
Driving the small roads from Palermo to Ragusa over Sicily (not the highways), this white building appeared in front of me. Here you can see the pictures.

Cellars of Diocletian – 2024
The cellars of the Roman emperor Diocleatian’s palace in Split, Croatia, are impressive. When I had a second chance to see them (2021), I was prepared – as I knew that my sailing friends would just walk them through – I needed to be fast… As a dedicated fan of antique history, from Mesopotamian cultures to Roman times, I liked to reflect the times passing, its events, as them too often appear to me unpleasant, unfortunately. The other aspect – not shown in this series – is that I optimistically see that we humans can go constructively forward getting the world better – although, again, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza shadow this view … The series comprises 17 pictures which contain material created by me or from copyright free sources.

Swimming Pool – 2023
A few years ago I took these photos. – I saw Bill Viola’s Reflecting Pool some tens of years ago in NY. Since then, I’ve looked at swimming pools differently. – In this context, please visit Paestum, Italy, to see see this wall painting (and all other magnificent things) supposedly illustrating significances associated with diving and swimming already a long time ago (https://www.hippopx.com/en/paestum-salerno-italy-tomb-of-the-diver-diver-fresco-magna-grecia-203573).

In the Building – 2021
I shot these photos in 2006 in Paris in a congress center. The first ones I published here in November 2021.

Burned – 2021
These are pictures which I would’t like to be realized in our lives – I took these pictures in Portugal and Spain around 2015, as forest fires were reported there. The first ones I published in the net in May 2021.

Holiday Resort – 2020
We visited this place on holiday several years before I took these photos in 2012. I remember the resort a bit unreal, artificial. Perhaps therefore, I returned there and shot these pictures. The first photos I uploaded in the site in September 2020. The complete series consists of 24 pictures. Additional material in these photos is copyright free from the Library of Congress and rawpixel.

Yellow Staircase – 2019
The two first photos of the series were uploaded in December 2019. The following ones later in short intervals. The series was taken by iPhone in an apartment building in Helsinki a few years ago.

Escape – Taking off & Landing – 2019 and 2020 [two videos]
I made these two videos using iPhone photos I took in the cabin from the display showing the view in front of the airplane on takeoff and landing.

Short Stories from the Wood – 2019
What is nature? Part of the physical reality – or a reflection of our wishes? – I took these pictures in Kuopio, in 2008.

Window – 2018
I have here two versions of the same material: pictures and a movie. I like films, and in my teenage years, my hobby was to make 8 mm movies with my friends (nowadays they are called videos :). The two approaches in this series are independent. I took these photos in Paris, in 2006.

Revised Series

Tennis Court – 2017/2024
There is a village, Juankoski, near to Kuopio which was at some time in the past an industrial site, and now situated, as we tend to understand it, in the deep forest. Therefore, there also was for white-collar workers, I guess, a tennis court. Now it is abandoned. The additional material in the series is copy-right free.

Yellow House – 2013/2024
This series is from Italy. Originally, the series was quite plain. Now, I’ve tried to get it more immersive, with people in some pictures. The additional material is copy-right free.

Motel – 2012/2022
These pictures are from the USA, taken in 2012. – This series is largely revised and improved.

Fortress – 2017/2021
One of the crucial reasons for establishing the European Union in the 1950s, after the 2nd World War, was the conviction that such disasters must be prevented in the future. Unfortunately, this aspect is neglected in these days of simple (or alternative) truths. I took these pictures some 30 years ago in Normandy, France.

Highway – 2016/2022
The road was under reconstruction in 2010. I had been looking at sites like this for long because of embarrassment what human activity can bring about in the environment. Another source of inspiration could have been a book in a local library in my teenage years: It was about Robert Smithson and his land art.

Cars – 2012/2021
I took these pictures in 1985. At that time, there was a car demolition firm in the periphery of my home town, Kuopio. Now, one of the suburbs is situated there.

Bus Line 4 – 2011/2020
Bus Line 4 connects two residential areas of Kuopio by going through the city. It also goes by my home. I shot these photos for the video in 2006.

Flying – 2008/2021
Flying, the concept, is seducing. Like fleeing. To fly away, somewhere, to … I guess we would like to fly. This video was taken over Europe with a mobile phone camera.

Sky – 2008/2021
I often look at the sky. It is a canvas with clouds, colors, vastness. Is a sky heaven? – These pictures are from a ferry going between Finland and Sweden.

Ship – 2007/2021
We sailed on this former tugboat in the very eastern part of Finland, on lake Pielinen, close to the Russian border. The district is important for the national identity of Finns. For example, Eero Järnefelt painted impressive views in the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries from the Koli mountain which is by the lake. Kalevala, the national epic, was collected here and to the northeast. For me, the calm atmosphere aroused thoughts of life.

Amusement Park – 2005/2021
At the beginning of the 1990s I arrived with my motorbike in a small town in central France. The afternoon was hot and I felt I needed some rest. I found a modest hotel where I stayed for a while. The center of the town was covered with great trees. Under the trees I found a small amusement park, with no visitors. I walked around and took photos. More than ten years later, after enlarging one of the pictures strongly, I knew that the town was Nevers. – This series was exhibited in the Iisalmi Camera Biennale 2005.

Airport – 2003/2021
I photographed the series in 2001 at an European airport. I accidentally missed the next flight and observed that I was left in a strange place: Human crowds seemed to vanish and I only could see an occasional traveler. I felt a sudden silence embracing the place which had been full of human activity only a few moments ago. In the following couple of hours, I tried to capture this peculiar experience. Then, little by little life came back and I realized that the airport just works in its rhythm. I was able to continue my journey.

Die Mauer (The Berlin Wall) and The House – 1999/2021
The pictures in Die Mauer and in The House are collages based on my photographs. To get the desired result, I have combined with them various elements, for example, photographs from other sources or 3-D models obtained from data bases or created by Bryce. Finally I have colorized the composition. – I have visited Berlin a few times. At the time when the western part of the city was surrounded by the former East Germany I liked West Berlin a lot because of its peculiar atmosphere. I still do like Berlin but atmosphere is different. I took the first series of the photos of the wall in 1983 and the second one in summer 1990 after the fall of the wall (die Mauer). I have not a good explanation why I wanted to photograph the wall. Maybe the desire was related to the great incomprehension to this kind of human monuments.
I have taken the photos of The House series in 1984 in Kuopio. The building was under reconstruction and it just seemed to me fascinating because of its changed looks. Various aspects of human life are reflected on its walls.

Sceneries – 1981/2021
The photographs of the series Sceneries were taken in eastern Finland. I believe that I succeeded in capturing what is characteristic in this part of Finland: A touch of nature.

The following previous series…

…which were visible in my earlier site are waiting for to be moved to the present site.

Forests remember – 2015
I guess that nature represents to most people a place to get relaxed. Therefore, there is an enormous number of summer cottages and houses, mostly by the numerous lakes, in Finland. To me, a forest is a bit more mysterious thing, even though I’m familiar with it after hiking many times in Lapland, the most northern part of Finland. Surrounding the Lake Inari was one of those memorable walks. The places and structures in this series are not from there but from southeastern Finland. I took the pictures around 1996.

Wall Objects – 2014
In 2007, I noticed a factory building which was quite near to my route to school in my teenage years. This time it was burned and under demolition. Coming closer, I saw these details on the wall of the former factory hall.

Park – 2014
This park is in the center of Kuopio. I took these pictures seven years ago.

Parking Place and Border of the Wood – 2013
I took these series near to Les Eyzies, France, in a region where you can find numerous caves with paintings from the Stone Age. Go to see them as long as they are open for the public. Art was invented very early! Well, these pictures are not from the caves.

Graves – 2012
In 1983 I was in Berlin taking photos for the Die Mauer series. There, by accident, I found myself in a small cemetery.

Night in the Orchard – 2011
I took these shots in Greece in a summer night in 2009. They are mandarin trees.

Home Videos – 2010
I took these movies at home. It is not a boring place.

Beach [masked] – 2010
Colorful areas in these pictures were determined by masks I used to correct the originals. This beach is in Italy.

Figures – 2008
Like thoughts, the series is an association, of objects I found in Italy, and of surroundings which are prevalent here in Finland.

Information – 2007
I took the pictures for the movie at a scientific congress in 2006. I find information, its generation and reception, an essential element for the modern human existence. The problem with it may be reflected in the movie …

Three Cities – 2006
These pictures I took in 2001-2003. I guess I’ve tried to visualize my impressions of these places. Sure, they are not comprehensive.

Building … – 2006
Building is important. I wonder why there is so much destruction.

Journey – 2003
I took this series in spring 2003 during a cruise to Riga, Latvia. While sitting in the cabin I noticed that I was looking at a kind of kaleidoscope, showing diverse objects and environments. It was like in a silent movie. What does happen for the next? How did the movie begin, how will it end? – The movie was exhibited in the Regional Photography Exhibition at the Victor Barsokevitsch Centre, Kuopio, 2005.

Other pictures
The City (1985) series was photographed in different countries of Europe during my travels.
The pictures of Lost Moment (1985) were mainly taken in Nice, France. The last picture is from Sicily.
The Roads (1981) series was photographed in my home town, Kuopio.
The Garden Furniture (1981) was photographed in eastern Finland, in the garden of a house which was situated as the houses were situated in old times, very far away from anything. At the time I was around with my camera, it served as a summer cottage.

Some ideas on photography

Taking photos
I have always liked to work on themes because a theme allows me to work freely without excessive effort on a single picture. I think that a theme also allows the viewer to feel better the atmosphere present in the pictures, as he/she is engaged in its ideas for a certain period of time.

About photography
Since my teenage years I have been interested in pictures, art of painting, and photography. I have found especially interesting the works of photographers like John Heartfield, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray and Andre Kertesz. Moreover, the works of the early 20th century pictorialists in New York have fascinated me. Jerry Uelsmann is a great magician in photography even though his works can appear to be only esthetic. The Czech photographer Jan Saudek’s works are inspiring because of their strange atmosphere. Another Czech (and/or French) photographer every photographer should know is Josef Koudelka. Conceptual photography has remained to me unfamiliar since it largely relies on rational thinking, compromising too often the visual impact, plus too often containg a single vague idea. In the other areas of art, I like Dadaism, the German expressionism from the beginning of the last century, and of course Andy Warhol. Another American painter I like is Edward Hopper. When I years ago saw the retrospective of Bill Viola’s video art in New York I was was simply shocked of his talent!

Technical comments
I have photographed the series Airport and Journey on a color negative material. The older photographs are originally black and white (except the Polaroids). In the late 1990s, I turned to digital photography. I like it because digitalization allows to control so many aspects of a picture, from taking them up to tuning and printing them. Before The Wall (Die Mauer) and The House, I used toners and water colors to turn photos in color. Then, I have colorized with Photoshop the photos in series The Wall, The House, Amusement Park and Fortress.

The size of my photographs varies. In the earlier photos, it is around 18 x 27 cm, except for the Roads series in which the size is half of that. The small photos in Lost Moment and in Thoughts were taken with a Polaroid SX-70 camera. The dimensions of the other photos are around 30 x 46 cm or 39 x 58 cm (300 dpi) with the exception of the 75 photos of Journey (10 x 15 cm, 300 dpi). Journey is at its best as a movie, preferably projected in a great size (768 x 1024 pix, 7.5 min). The reduced dimensions of the movie in this site prevent from seeing the nice details of the images (See the Selected images). Information and Ship were the first movies in which I have included sound. The dimensions of Sky are 30 x 100 cm.

Earlier I mainly took photos with Olympus OM-1 and often with the 28 mm objective. Then, I turned to using a point and shoot camera, Ricoh GR-1s (for its practicality) which has an objective of the same focal length but I have regreted the choice, as the quality of photos in compromized. My first digital camera was Sony DSC-R1. Its objective produces great sharp pictures and its focal range (24-120 mm, 35 mm format equivalent) is ideal for me. Now I shoot photos with a Nikon digital SLR. I process my photographs with Photoshop using iMac. For scanning the negatives, I use (or used 🙂 CanoScan FS4000US. For printing, I have a high-quality ink jet printer, a 4th Epson in succession. The model of the helicopter in Die Mauer #8 is from the archives of 3D Cafe (Platinum Pictures).

My first Internet gallery was opened in March 1999 when I had an exhibition in Gallery Kirstu, Kuopio, Finland after a long period with no major photographic activity. The exhibition consisted of the pictures which you can find under the titles The Wall/Die Mauer and The House. In March 2001, I included in my gallery photographs from the 1980s. In 2018, I started to put my snapshots (taken mainly with iPhone) to Instagram. In 2019, I created this Web site. I closed the original site in December 2022.