Intervals of some short breaths
Exhibited at Kuvan Kevät 2024
An attempt to visualise the movement of sunlight in the forest.
The following text is an excerpt from MFA thesis To photograph a butterfly:
Without thinking too much about it, I began to count the intervals between the photographs according to how many and what type of breaths I took. I am pretty sure that no scientific research would accept this rather unconventional way of measuring the intervals as legitimate, but for me it felt true. After all, I can trust myself that I have taken exactly five deep breaths, yet for the measured time I would have to trust clocks or other mechanical tools. Not to mention that time as we know it, is but another system we as humans have agreed upon.
After I felt content with the amount of photographs I briefly went through them in the camera. The situation I had just witnessed with my eyes showed itself completely differently in the photographs; what I thought would’ve been a subtle change turned out to be rather drastic. Between every single photograph the sunlight had moved far more than I had expected. Some parts of the frame had been entirely swallowed by shadows while the colours of the leaves had become faded due to the sunlight moving away—such things that I couldn’t notice with just my eyes alone.
The following text is an excerpt from MFA thesis To photograph a butterfly:
Without thinking too much about it, I began to count the intervals between the photographs according to how many and what type of breaths I took. I am pretty sure that no scientific research would accept this rather unconventional way of measuring the intervals as legitimate, but for me it felt true. After all, I can trust myself that I have taken exactly five deep breaths, yet for the measured time I would have to trust clocks or other mechanical tools. Not to mention that time as we know it, is but another system we as humans have agreed upon.
After I felt content with the amount of photographs I briefly went through them in the camera. The situation I had just witnessed with my eyes showed itself completely differently in the photographs; what I thought would’ve been a subtle change turned out to be rather drastic. Between every single photograph the sunlight had moved far more than I had expected. Some parts of the frame had been entirely swallowed by shadows while the colours of the leaves had become faded due to the sunlight moving away—such things that I couldn’t notice with just my eyes alone.
Joel Hilska-Heikkinen