i know a lot of people that are able to work magic with a digital camera, but i’m not one of them. to me, digital is efficient and cheap – but it doesn’t quite translate the feeling i get from analogue… and so, i’m quite happy to now be able to shoot and scan again, to my heart’s content.



the only problem i’ve found so far has been dust. it’s everywhere and i can’t seem to keep it out of my negatives, no matter how much i clean them… tips?

like a bucket of cold water in the head, it feels sudden, yet… refreshing. we’ve been running around like headless chicken for the past month, and i hope that for whatever time her recovery takes, we’ll be able to tie some loose ends and slow down. that brings us to the topic of helsinki/finland, which i have been postponing for the past month. so let’s catch up.



you know how the favorite parts of a trip often don’t come in your guidebook?

this one was a bit unexpected: squirrels! when nathalie & mikko proposed that we take a walk on seurasaari island to see the squirrels, i jumped at the idea! we barely get to see them around here (nevermind shanghai)… so, armed with a supply of peanuts and cameras, we wandered the island looking for squirrels.

they weren’t too shy, and once you found one, many more seemed to magically appear in the horizon, and before you know it they were coming at us from all sides, crawling up our legs to get that one delicious peanut! they took them all, of course, and we came back home with happy smiles and an endless supply of shaky photos… (they’re so fast!)

if you’re going to helsinki, don’t miss it! :)

Yarn bombing or yarnbombing is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk.
While other forms of graffiti may be expressive, decorative, territorial, socio-political commentary, advertising or vandalism, yarn bombing is almost exclusively about beautification and creativity.

from wikipedia




lots more examples at yarnbombing.com.

and then came finland and i was totally unprepared for the berries explosion! strawberries, cloudberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries… they had them all in their open air markets, box after box of juicy colorful berries. they had them in an array of mouthwatering desserts too, like the one that inspired this post: vadelma munkki. we had just arrived from a trip to suomenlinna and were starving, so these strange looking treats in the harbour market were a delicious surprise.


sugary and fluffy and light, with sweet raspberry jam peeking from the inside…

…nobody could resist them! :D

the architecture, by steven holl, is quite impressive (the curves on the atrium are incredible) and they give visitors ipods that guide you through the exhibits (none of those crap audiotour gadgets designed in the 70s).

the main exhibit when we visited was called “tracking traces”. it’s quite vague and hard to explain in words, so, from the booklet:

The works in the Tracking traces… collection exhibition have been divided into three thematic sections: The works under the Smudge theme explore the way in which the city is transmitted through the activity as signs and deeds. The works deal with, for example, globalization, subvertising and activism. The works under the Barcode theme use the whole spectrum of imagery offered by the visual culture as their material. The works borrow various images and in doing so change their original meanings. The third theme looks at the body as an image. Imprints are often seen as recognizable signs on the body, such as sleep wrinkles, bites or bruises. The traces left by the event may be more permanent than the physical sign.

some highlights i liked:

- an essay on patriotic food:




- a surprising (and brilliant) photo essay on “animal viscera as garment”:

- a little train that ran around a room. it had a camera inside that was streaming to a mini-amphitheater on a corner, while voices from the “passengers” told their stories and recollections:

museum of contemporary art kiasma
mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 helsinki