in-camera photo experiments inspired by dreams, supernatural and a childhood’s memory of a mystic kaleidoscope.
Ps. No photoshop.
in-camera photo experiments inspired by dreams, supernatural and a childhood’s memory of a mystic kaleidoscope.
Ps. No photoshop.
in-camera photo experiments inspired by dreams, supernatural and a childhood’s memory of a mystic kaleidoscope.
Ps. No photoshop.
valokuvataidepostikortit
a glass print photo series inspired by dreams, unexplained phenomena and thoughts about life.
Andalucian Dream, 2018.
Merbirds, 2015. The first edition of the piece belongs to the Raseborg’s Photographic Centre’s collection.
Spring, 2018.
(((Open for exhibition inquiries—message me)))
I can’t recall how old I was—a child, anyway. My family was having guests from abroad, friends of my sister. This one guy I remember very well, for he brought quite peculiar objects with him. Fabian Rose was a craftsman, who built kaleidoscopes – ornamental optical tubes, that reveal a whole different world when looking inside one. Inside a kaleidoscope the ever-changing geometric and vibrant images multiply and new shapes and colours are being created constantly. This wondrous experience attached into a wall of memories in my labyrinthine subconscious, like a sparkling magic mirror. And there it stayed, reflecting signals to the future. (The article continues below the pictures)
The props of the exhibition: The kaleidoscope and the kaleidoscope glasses.
Fabian Rose interviewed by the local newspaper of my childhood city.
It’s intriguing how a small thing floating by in the stream of life can have such a powerful impact on us. A single dream, for example, can shock, fascinate or, moreover, perplex one’s mind for a long time. The content of a dream can be interpreted like a rebus. Through history, mystical meanings have been connected into dreams. Such as a soul traveling into another reality while we are asleep. At times I have pondered, what dreams actually are and how they are born.
At the doorstep of my adulthood—about ten years ago—I got interested in stories about paranormal phenomena. With a curiosity I explored intriguing photographs, in which reportedly claimed to have spirits of deceased people and extraterrestrial spaceships captured in them. I also became fascinated by images that had nothing paranormal in them, but due technical failures there were peculiar effects appearing in them. I found it entertaining that some people actually wanted to produce pictures like that, on purpose.
Some Dream Garden and my other works printed in postcards. You may purchase them from my exhibitions.
Inspired by those things, I purchased myself a retro copy of a 1960’s Diana camera with a lo-fi plastic lens, as well as a roll of special film that produces very strange colours. It was quite an expensive experiment and, for the photos, mostly a failure. Nevertheless, it was so invigorating experiment that I wanted to generate more of these dream-like photographs with a greater intensity. I wanted to examine, how it could be done with a digital systems camera but with analogical means, without a need of the miracles done with the digital magic wand of the photo editing software.
Double exposures, light leaks, refractions and other such stuff that was perceived as unwanted during the era of film photography, found their purpose in my creative working. I like to think that my expedition has been like a polyhedronic dream, that has materialized into some kind of magician’s case filled with special tools. My case includes, for instance, optics that have been pet peeves of their era because of the strange effects they make into pictures.
Cosmos (Kosmos) won Finnish Photo Awards photo contest’s ”Nature” category in 2019. The contests is a part of the international World Photographic Cup contest, in which Cosmos was representing Finland as a finalist. The picture itself shows a spider web in the morning dew and reminds me of the DNA chains. Oftentimes people have told me that they see the Universe in this image.
Dream Garden is an imagery of my photo experiments from the time frame of 2015–2018. Childhood’s memory of the amazing kaleidoscope combined with surreal dreamworlds and the stories about supernatural, are being brought to life in the photographs. Gravitate towards mind altering stroll in the arboretum of dreams, mystical lands and hovering spheres. Ps. Have a try on kaleidoscope!