In Situ

Can there be human existence without traces or memories? If not, how long can a memory, a piece of evidence or a relic survive?

These are the questions I have approached in my exhibition, examining the traces and evidence of human presence in the huts and shacks of the homeless. Traces, oblivion and vanishing are the prevailing themes of IN SITU.

In these images a parallel is drawn between Tokyo - a metropolis without evident borders - and Helsinki. Two cultures divided by thousands of kilometers, with different histories and languages. Though, quite a moving similarity can be seen in the tents and huts of the images.

In IN SITU the outcasts and their huts are the objects of landscape photography, as opposed to the approaches of traditional photojournalism or methodical documentarism. The builders of these huts are mainly invisible to us, located on the peripheral vision of society. However, in the images their presence is still discernible, as if someone had just been there.

IN SITU continues my series of exhibitions focusing on landscape and visual re-mapping with images. Photography is a logical instrument for this work. It is an instrument, which, in very complex ways, is believed to be neutral. The themes have varied from the executions and violence of the Finnish Civil War in 1918 (Topography of Murder, 2001), the threat and fear in city space (Topography of Fear, 2001) and hiking (Aomori Waterwalks installation, Japan 2004).