Beauty of Silence

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Beauty of Silence

Beauty of silence, by the photographer, Martti Jämsä.

The scene of the events is our family´s summer house, where I have photographed my own family´s summers for nine years. During my childhood the house had a shingle roof and oil lamps, now it has a sheet iron roof and electric lightning. Yet very little has changed; there is much that is still the same. The log walls hewn on site, the well varnished doors. I can still admire the work of the carpenters.

That is what is fascinating about photography. Success is facilitated above all by sunlight and warmth. My own technique of photography is close to the style of the snapshot photographers. Polaroid instant photographs represent the modern aspect in my photography. I can immediately see how I have succeeded. I rinse the films in a jar with water that I´ve carried from the lake. It´s not always clean. The scratches and marks come from me and the children handling the films when drying them in the sauna.

Summer

The summer isn’t endless in Finland, but there are almost endless summer days. On a fine summer day, Finns have an overwhelming urge to go outside and get out of town.

Summer

My wife Kirsi at Vennaniemi, sitting on the shore at the summer house and looking out over the water of Ukonselkä. Willow grows really quickly by the lake at our summer house…

The summer house was built by my grandparents Kalle and Ida. The deck chair was theirs. I can imagine one of them still sitting in it… I’m holding Risto’s hand; taking him into the deeper water where I’ll help him to swim. I’ve focused the camera on the rock in the foreground. My wife Kirsi pressed the remote shutter release.

Pentti standing in the evening sun on the shore outside the sauna. He’s looking for baby pike in the shallow water. Niilo and Pentti going swimming by the shore. The water is still on the chilly side, they are flapping their arms and there are slippery stones on the lake bottom.

I suddenly saw this when the boys were playing. They had put the stone on top of the airbed so it didn’t blow into the lake. Niilo in my mother’s sun hat. When the sun shines from a cloudless sky on a hot summer day, you grab the nearest hat you can find.

Culture

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Beauty of Silence