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Mikko Haiko
March, 2015
Nisola, Finland. It’s a place 25,000 light years away from the center of the Milky way and 700 kilometers below the Arctic Circle. Somewhere between Sweden and Russia.
Mikko Haiko writes:
For several years I have documented my birthplace in the Finnish countryside in the village of Nisola, near the Russian border. With every frame I have tried to capture the identity of the place, which to me has in many ways to do with a strong bond between people and nature.
In a sense I´m building a family album, in some ways like the images of English photographer Richard Billingham from the 90’s. But whereas Billingham kept his focus on his own family members, my work is more related to a sense of place – and of a place as a state of mind.
I see photography as a ready-made-art. All the content and symbols are already out there in reality. I just frame and emphasize the idea with my camera.
My photographs are bridges between my inner and outer worlds. Identity of place and identity of people are shared. John Constable, a British painter from the Romantic era said that he paints his ”own places” best. I am my own place.