Martina Lindqvist - A Thousand Little Suns (2010)

Runner up in this years Terry O’Neill Awards (currently on show at the Hotshoe Gallery London), Lindqvist’s images capture the strange disquiet of the forrest borderline in Finland. Her project statement reads: 

Marcault and Thérèse Brosse once wrote that, “forests, especially, with the mystery of their space prolonged indefinitely beyond the veil of tree-trunks and leaves, space that is veiled for our eyes… are veritable psychological transcendents.” Forests, in spite of being the most natural of spaces, are truly unnatural for the cultured human being. If we don’t know where we are going, we no longer know where we are, and standing on the brink of a forest always represents this possibility of going deeper and deeper into the unknown.

She explains of the work further in Hey, Hey Shot!: 

‘Having grown up in a big city, I rarely experienced the majesty and serenity of forests. Perhaps because of this, I do have an understanding, a respect (one might even call it a healthy fear) for sylvan expanses and what they come to symbolize: the all-surrounding, disorienting unknown. To a child who might’ve grown up gazing out of country windows, forests (particularly at night) must’ve seemed like foreboding, mysterious places full of wonders and perils.’

With this series, Martina Lindqvist has revisited childhood locations in Ostrobothnia, Finland. Despite expectations for scenes of complete darkness, the landscapes are eerily lit, illuminating the seemingly deserted homes on the edge of the forrest enveloped in deep black skies.

 ”The concept of the border, Lindqvist adds, is a reflection of the experience of an inherited yet closed off culture that was always seen through the eyes of a visitor.”

http://www.martinalindqvist.com/