Helsinki Moments

« A cute kid at Linnanmäki who wasn't so thrilled to watch the Olympic Torch being carried past him. Perhaps if the torch were made of ice cream.... »

Last year there was a story about Eeva and Simo Rista, a couple of amateur photographers two professional photographers (I stand corrected since I vaguely remember that being the case last year and got caught out for not reading or making Jarkko read the details in Finnish as they are well known in Finland. Mea Culpa. Many thanks to the person who ever so politely corrected me.), who gave a lifetime of photographs to be digitized and shared with the public. The other day we were walking past Lasipalatsi where I noticed a few random pictures in the window and it turns out that Lasipalatsi has started to accept pictures from other people who wish to submit their photos for the collection/archive. The show, Moments in Helsinki is free and open from 12-6p Tuesday through Sunday through the month of August. There are some really great photos and, aside from the Rista's photos, I particularly like the photos of Tapio Mäkiö as his 300 pictures tell a story and he has a good eye. The photo Life returns to normal after the chaos of moving taken in February 1966 is a lovely vignette. There are 10,000 or so more to browse through online (only a tiny fraction of which have been printed for the gallery) which is a really interesting view into life in Finland in photographs taken not by photojournalists but everyday people.

And, note to self...when heading out into the bush in Finland to photograph things that glow in the dark during the warmer months, remember to take a giant stick of bug-off, a can of raid spray, a mosquito net, a citronella candle (or 5), and an extra pint of blood. Damn, I can't wait for the -20C weather with dry wind and snow since at least with frostbite there are no bloodsucking evil vampires on gossamer wings involved. Of course, when it took nearly 2 hours for me to get all the feeling in my fingers back after photographings the Kide in -20C weather I was thinking how wonderful summertime would be. :)