Why the Namibian desert? Did you have a preconceived idea of the kind of project you wanted to make or did the location inspire it?
Ultimately, I went to Namibia to have a break from my life in Finland. One could say that I didn’t have an aim to do there anything photographically, but perhaps that isn’t completely true. It was an escape yes, but at the same time I wanted to somehow develop my photographic language, to take the next step after my first photo book Block. Since then, it seems that I am moving further away from an informative approach towards something else, where the illusion an image creates is more important than the actuality.
I wanted to be free from any self-imposed restrictions; to be able to shoot whatever in whatever style I wanted. I did not want to frame or define my process beforehand, but I wanted to see where it led me. It was a reaction against the very strict, form-based photography I did while working on Block. By working like this I thought, perhaps, I could find something beyond my imagination. But it is hard not to destroy one’s intuition by being too conscious; it is hard to let go.
Of course, the location has a lot to do with the process. The desert is such an extreme place. Also, I was going through a heavy chapter in my life when a great deal changed. An attempt to persevere in the ruins of the story of my life provided an emotional backbone. Then again, how can you express this kind of thing in a photo? I could have done the project in some other place too, I mean of course it would not be the same, but I was just looking for space as far away as possible.
The text that accompanies the book explains that the images are subjective: shaped by an inner journey provoked by a personal crisis. How is this reflected in the photographs?
How far can inner and outer reality be divorced from one another? And can you use photography to investigate the difference, the world between? Perhaps there are topics or notions that you only perceive in a certain state of mind, or you see them more clearly. But, I cannot think of anything else I could have photographed. It is a battle between intuition and consciousness, somehow you always use both.
I have done quite a bit of straightforward documentary photography too, in places such as Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia. I think it is an important tradition, it has its own place in the field of photography and I appreciate it. But that kind of photography seems to say things about the world in the same way. In fact, I believe our connection to the world is much more personal. And right now, I am interested in exploring that personal side and where it leads me to.
So, in a way, I like to think of my process for this project as a painter would look at their hand making work on the canvas. The hand has its own will and the hand’s owner can only respect it and allow it to create things without truly knowing what they will be. It is only afterwards that one can attempt to make sense of what has happened.