The process of photographing Prison sheets -series has taken me to St. Petersburg, Tartu, Vilnius, Berlin, Hämeenlinna, Jerusalem and Acre. I have carried my fieldcamera in museum prisons located in these cities. Project started in 1999 and it is now (2005) completed.
Prisons I have chosen to visit are known for their political orientations − these prisons have hold especially political prisoners. A person has become imprisoned because he/she has been speaking or acting in a manner that is considered to be, from the viewpoint of a hegemonic dicourse or power holder, incorrect or not wished. People placed in these prisons have not only lost their freedom, but they also have been systematically tortured.
After spending some time in these locations I have found them also harmonic and peaceful. Because I don’t have pathological or experince-based knowledge or relationship to these places − I understand these prisons mainly as travel attractions, memorials or discoursive constructions − I also see much beaty in them. Feeling is highly paradoxical and controversial. These places and spaces represent horrific and real experiences, but at the same time they can be considered as interesting, harmonious and fascinating monuments. As architectural buildings they are combination of sacret and evil.
I photograph historical places and traces. I do not only reproduse them with straight forward realistic way, but I interprete these spaces through poetic documentarism. With these images I try to open the places to further interpretation. Places I have photographed are never passive or meaningless, even though they are empty at the moment. They cause feelings. This is because violating practises these places are built and acted for are not absent in our times too.
All pictures are photographed with 4x5-inch color negative film. The final picture is laminated digital C-type print mounted onto aluminium.