MARJA PIRILÄWorks 4.1.2014 – 2.2.2014

Milavida #1, 2012
pigment ink print
132 x 112 cm

MARJA PIRILÄ

I have to dig deep into the darkness again to find the photograph in camera obscura. In the dim room my eyes adjust to see the reflexions of light, dreamlike illusions that emerge when the interior and the exterior mix with each other. And in the dark room the surprise is always there - a blind photographer getting their sight back! In the end I can see what I was looking for, fluttering in front of my eyes. I open the shutter and expose the picture.

Late in the winter of 2013 I worked in Rovaniemi, in the place where I was born. The magic of the places where I used to play inspired me to take photographs of children using the camera obscura method. I dove into the world of children and young people, to the moments of wonder and being present. The result was a series of pictures that depict those in them and their surroundings, as well as memories and recollections of my own childhood. The new photographs continue the Exterior/Interior series that I photographed in Finland, Norway, Italy and France between 1996 and 2007.

I photographed the Milavida series at the palace in Tampere, now known as Näsilinna, which was completed in 1898. As I spent long hours taking photos in the empty silence of the building, its rooms began to breathe the palace's wild and eventful past. It felt like the past and present were having a dialogue in the dark rooms that I had turned into camera obscuras. I photographed the spaces of transition: doors, doorways and thresholds as they reflect my emotions toward change and the unknown and my love for light and its temperamental nature.

In the Milavida/Nottbeck series, I used Peter and Olga von Nottbeck's family photo album. They build the Milavida palace as their home and a place for entertaining guests, but, tragically, they died just as the house was completed, leaving four small children orphaned. I have integrated old album pictures with solarigraphs exposed in the palace surroundings. The sun's tracks drawn in the images merge with the old pictures of the family that no longer exists.

In The Birth of a Photograph/Encyclopedy Camera obscura, a pile of old encyclopaedias has gone through a metamorphosis. The series depicts the birth of a photograph in both a physical and literal sense. I produced this work in collaboration with photographer Petri Nuutinen.

Marja Pirilä

 
  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Eero_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Eero, Tampere, 2013
    pigment ink print
    97 x 89 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Alvar_ja_Eerik_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Alvar and Erik, Rovaniemi, 2013
    pigment ink print
    142 x 111 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Eero_ja_siivet_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Eero and wings, Tampere, 2013
    pigment ink print
    122 x 88 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Iris_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Iris, Nauvo, 2004
    pigment ink print
    80 x 95 cm
    Edition 7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Ella_2013_p

    Camera obscura/Ella, Rovaniemi, 2013
    pigment ink print
    80 x 96 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Melchior_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Melchior, Rouen, France, 2007
    pigment ink print
    111 + 141 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Reeta_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Reeta, Oulu, 2013
    pigment ink print
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Sara_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Sara, Tampere, 2013
    pigment ink print
    97 x 163 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Tytti_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Tytti, Liminka, 2013
    pigment ink print
    83 x 62 cm
    Editio 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Siiri_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Siiri, Tampere, 2013
    pigment ink print
    80 x 106 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Lalla_2013_p

    Camera obscura/Lalla, Rouen, France, 2007
    pigment ink print
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Kaisa_2013_p

    Camera obscura / Kaisa, Rovaniemi, 2013
    pigment ink print
    84 x 122 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Luostarin_puutarha_2013_p

    Camera obscura/Monastery Garden, Rouen, France, 2007
    pigment ink print
    97 x 128 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida13_2013_p

    Milavida #13, 2013
    pigment ink print
    88 x 120 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida19_2013_p

    Milavida #19, 2013
    pigmenttivedos
    66 x 132 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida2_2012_p

    Milavida #2, 2013
    pigment ink print
    66 x 132 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida14_2013_p

    Milavida #14, 2013
    pigment ink print
    120 x 86 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida16_2013_p

    Milavida #16, 2013
    pigment ink print
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida7_2013_p

    Milavida #7, 2012
    pigment ink print
    112 x 66 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida17_2013_p

    Milavida #17, 2013
    pigment ink print
    110 x 75 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida12_2013_p

    Milavida #12, 2013
    pigment ink print
    78 x 61 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida15_2013_p

    Milavida #15, 2013
    pigment ink print
    95 x 89 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida3_2012_p

    Milavida #3, 2012
    pigment ink print
    61 x 78 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida9_2013_p

    Milavida #9, 2012
    pigment ink print
    61 x 78 cm
    Edition 7+7+2AP

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_IrisNuutinen_Milavida_Nottbeck_1_2013_netti

    Milavida / Nottbeck (detail), 2013
    series of 10 prints
    face-mounted pigment ink print
    Edition 5

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_IrisNuutinen_Milavida_Nottbeck_5_2013_netti

    Milavida / Nottbeck (detail), 2013
    series of 10 prints
    face-mounted pigment ink print
    Edition 5

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Milavida_Nottbeck2_2014_p

    Milavida / Nottbeck (general view of the work), 2013
    series of 10 prints
    face-mounted pigment ink print
    Edition 5

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_Nuutinen_Valokuvan-synty_netti

    The Birth of a Photograph/Encyclopedia Camera obscura, 2012
    assemblage
    65 x 65 x 145 cm

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_netti_yleiskuva3

    General view of the exhibition, 2014

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_yleiskuva4_netti

    General view of the exhibition, 2014

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_netti_yleiskuva1

    General view of the exhibition, 2014

  • pirila/2013/Pirila_netti_yleiskuva2

    General view of the exhibition, 2014

 
 
 
 
 
top