arteles_catalogue_2014

MEETING FINNISH FAMILIES AND EXPLORATIONS ON A RED BICYCLE!
Two topics intrigued me when I arrived at Arteles.
The first was the distance between houses, and the social
structure implied by local architecture. Houses are spaced further
apart than in villages in Western or Southern Europe. Most of
them have playgrounds or toys nearby, and one or two cars,
indicating nuclear families quite unlike the statistical average in
cities. I wanted to see how the families present themselves to a
stranger, how they group themselves for the photograph, what
distance they keep between themselves, and how they pose.
This set of photographs is tentatively called “Finnish Family”.
The second impression grew more slowly. Having lived in a city
for the last few years, I re-discovered the joy of exploring pastoral
surroundings on a bicycle. Although neither new nor fancy,
the bicycle was red! On the red bicycle I felt like a ten-year old
adventurer on an expedition into both familiar and uncharted
territories. My outings on the red bicycle eventually developed
into a second photographic project at Arteles.