Wednesday 27 February 2019

Holiday Photos As a Source of Inspiration

MoMa 2018, New York
Wall in Turku 2016

Do you agree with me that holiday pictures come in masses? In the era of digital camera and smart phones taking one or two extra photos is easy. Scary to even think about that one would miss a moment just by thinking if it is worth the film. Photographing is an obsession, more evidence the better. As a result one trip to nearby town can lead to hundreds of photographs. At least I am very lazy in sorting out the shaky pictures from the good quality and thus my personal archives are full of both messy catches and something that would be nice to get in a paper album for future generations. As this will likely never happen, if someone doesn't do it for me, the archives get to be what they are.

One reason why I take so many photographs is that I want to gather all things that I find exciting, new and inspiring. Colours, forms,  curiosities. I enjoy architectural details like curvy old buildings and modern polished structures. Edgy streets and urban city space are equally fascinating. In a traditional photo album a collection of windows would seem a personal option.

Few days ago I started going through my archives with a different thought. Maybe a pile of old photos could become a quilt. Instead of feeling sorry for all these old pictures that will likely disappear one day when some digital format changes, those could turn into works that survive from time. There would be no photo album but an artistic interpretation of a certain trip that would make the essence of the holiday memorable. 

To get the creative juices flowing with new quilt projects I took a notebook and pencil and began sketching. The technique is simple. First I went through pictures from 2016 when I visited in southern Finland. I went through all the material very quickly. Every now and then I concentrated on a photo, chose one detail and sketched it to my notebook. I got few pages full of small drawings. In the process some forms began to live and I studied those further after the sketching session. 

The technique was easy to practice and the photos I had taken served as a source of inspiration as I had once intended. Now I shall go through more recent archives as it was fun to go back to those moments and memories that the original pictures hold. I showed these new sketches on my Instagram stories some days ago and asked if you recognize the real thing behind the processed and more abstract sketch. Here I put the original picture under the sketch so you get a clue what I am meaning with this technique.


Ship masts at Turku 2016


Street lights in Helsinki 2016
Could I find a detail that would turn into a pattern in these photos. We will see.



Staten Island Ferry 2018, New York

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