Passageways
Screen capture from the video artwork Kulkureittejä – Passageways (2021) showing Heinilä’s self portrait and a sheet drying in her home yard in Luvia.
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A hundred years ago in Luvia, Finland, lived a village photographer, Hanna Heinilä, who was a self-taught early amateur photographer. She captured landscapes and people with a unique and artistic approach. In the astonishing photographs that were coincidentally found and narrowly saved from destruction, one can see the full spectrum of life from childhood to death, from the village's first tractors to sailing ships.
Rauma Art Museum realised in 2021 a striking exhibition In Her Country – Village Photographer Hanna Heinilä of her works, which was further enriched by works from contemporary artists, inspired by Heinilä’s legacy. I was commissioned to print a large selection of Heinilä’s photographs from her original glass dryplate negatives, as well as to make a video artwork and my own series of darkroom photographs. You may read about the task from the Ilford’s blog.
Apart from the artworks, I wrote an article Meren kuva ja aika (Image of Sea and Time) about the fascinating theme of water in Heinilä’s images for the book Omalla maallaan. Kyläkuvaaja Hanna Heinilä, published by Rauma Art Museum (Parvs).