LIGHT AND CAMERA OBSCURA


The camera obscura phenomenon, at once simple and magical,
never ceases to fascinate me. I have worked with it intensely ever since 1996.
By transforming spaces into "Dark Rooms" I capture the dreamlike reflections of light
and the merging of interior and exterior worlds. With the age-old method I scan
the subconscious layers of our environments and mental landscapes.

Before embarking on photography I studied biology. In the course of my master’s thesis
I became immersed for days on end in the world of flies and their metamorphoses.
Suddenly I recalled a childhood experience which changed everything:
How different would this same world appear if I were something else – perhaps a fly?

In camera obscura darkness, silence and slowness compel one
to contemplate the world in a novel way, from new angles.
When the space transforms into a ”dark room” it conjures up
the core and magic of photography again and again.
That is when I feel most acutely that I am working with light.

Besides the camera obscura series I have made an eight year project entitled I am (Minä olen),
which originated in a fascination with the growth and change in children.
In photographing the the Herbarium series I was after the force radiated by plants,
to me a source of boundless joy. Indeed my extensive production has always a focus
on light and its power to entrance.