DESERTED PRESENCE KATARIINA SALMI
Abandoned, quiet place full of history. The ground around the site has been stepped thousands of times and there is an endless amount of stories to tell, all in the past. Silence embraces the surroundings but something is going on. The location seems desolated but there is a feeling of somebody’s presence all the time. And so the chain of odd scenes begin. I made a series of photographs inspired by dream journals. Dreams were just the first base of inspiration in creating a sequence of uncomfortable and strange incidents that actually could also happen in the real world. I am trying generate an ambience where the viewer doesn’t exactly know what is going on. The feelings of uneasiness and strangeness are present. I went to take pictures in different special locations around Spain and Finland. Places include Franco’s old house in Torrelodones, a village of Belchite which was totally destroyed by the war and a forest in Helsinki near to a hill where people was hanged to death. These sad and strong places of history include an atmosphere of their own to the photos. Each photograph tells it’s own individual story and combined together they create a tale of a journey to a mystical reality where almost everything is possible. The atmosphere of the visuality works as a narrative. The main purpose of the series is not to say anything literally. The intention is to create moods and certain kind of atmosphere and leave enough space for the viewer’s imagination. The viewer tells how the story continues or ends.