LAKELAND

Lakeland explores the haptic and sensual, experienced through elements of nature. The touch of cool lake water against the skin. Or the gentle warmness of the sun felt after a swim. The hum of wind chanted by forest trees. And the serene silence of the placid pond interspersed by nightly birdsong and fragrance of birch trees.

Lakeland attempts to express something that photography, in its two dimensional condition, cannot reproduce: the haptic experience. The image can only evoke the sensory feeling - which is never just restricted to pure sensations but contains also the emotional dimension. The haptic experience is universal, and at the same time always particular, bound to a place and personal history, memory.

The photographs of Lakeland -series were largely captured during two summer holidays spent with immediate family and friends in Anttola and Saarijärvi, situated in the Finnish lake area. It was a time of pleasure and relief after winters dominated by the pandemic. While restrictions still existed, summertime gave some leeway. Warm silvery lakes provided comfort and long-awaited chance to escape the numb and repetitive routine of isolation.

Those two summers came with overwhelming intensity, as brief Finnish summers often do. A cottage life. Spuds and pike. Canister water and mosquitoes. Beer and sauna. Affordable luxury in ‘the Land of Thousand Lakes’.

Hours were spent in water.

Dog days well wasted. 

Time now missed.