Ping Pong
Ping Pong is a visual conversation between Munich based Jens Masmann and myself.
We started our nonverbal communication after we noted links and similarities in our work when meeting in Derby 2017.
Reading each other’s work and learning to understand its visual vocabulary was the main framework of this project. To recognize and to decrypt the shadings and syntax of the ping pong partner‘s picture was the first serve, shaping the visual answer was the return play. This reply could have been backhanded or forehanded, could deliver a fast break or block a narrative thread and open a new one with a topspin or a smash.
Million Books, Münich, 2023
16 x 21 cm, 128 pages, 100+ colour photographs
Rubber band binding
Digital printing on uncoated paper
Edition of 80
Signed
40€
Pahka-Suomi / Burl Finland
This is my small exploration beyond the comfort zone of Nordic Design, into the wonderland of forest design. The photo series dates back a few years. While tackling aesthetic challenges, I may have touched upon some metaphorical portrayal of the zeitgeist too. One piece from the series was acquired by the Finnish State Art Collection, but that aside, the series went into hibernation. In 2023, as the right-wing government in Finland began to wield their sledgehammer, these gnarled burls and other beings started demanding entry into the pages of a book. Thus, the sixth publication in the du/do booklet series was born.
Self-published (du/do no.6), 2023
15 x 21 cm, 36 pages, 19 colour photographs
Saddle stitched
Digital printing on uncoated paper
Edition of 100
ISBN 978-952-65081-1-5
18€
Um gufu
This book is about steam. Well, it is about rocks and about other phases of water as well. Much less about humans - the few people in it look tiny: hence the book is about scale, too. Somehow there is also a sense of anticipation. I believe that’s because of the steam.
Self-published (du/do no.5), 2022
15,4 x 21 cm, 36 pages, 22 colour photographs
Thread bound by the artist, dust jacket
Digital printing on uncoated paper
Edition of 100
ISBN 978-952-65081-0-8
17€
Medusa
In 1989 I was a first-year photograpohy student at UIAH – The University of Arts and Design Helsinki. My class traveled to Istanbul for a free-spirited workshop. I cannot reacall for how many days we stayed there, but it took 33 years before I dug out my film negatives and compiled this book.
Self-published (du/do no.4), 2022
15 x 21 cm, 36 pages, 23 black & white photographs
Saddle stitched
Digital printing on uncoated paper
Edition of 100
ISBN 978-952-94-6445-6
12€
Centrum
These images were taken around Helsinki’s geographical centre during the spring of 2020, when the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic swept through our daily routines, transforming them beyond recognition. Venues were closed, the metro and the buses were running half empty. Settled in the living room we gazed at digital replicas of our work colleagues. As people spent more time in nearby areas of nature, recreational tracks often became crowded and the cautious ones navigated an alternative course through thickets to avoid bumping into others. The existing paths grew wider and new ones were born. Prevailing currents of thought became congested by an eerie atmosphere – which gently was eased by the timidly emerging spring.
Self-published (du/do no.3), 2022
15 x 21 cm, 32 pages, 18 colour photographs
Saddle stitched
Digital printing on coated paper
Edition of 150
ISBN 978-952-94-5826-4
13€
Bloom
Most of Finns have a summer cottage or a garden. I have neither, and I live in a block house. During the last 18 years I have spent summers in a Latvian village and there our "summer cottage" is a flat in a block house. However, each flat has a backyard garden where people grow berries, fruits and vegetables. And of course flowers, mostly for adorning graves. (Well, at least my mother in law grew them for that purpose).
One evening I took a couple of random flower pictures, but didn't think much of it. It was only later that I registered the multitude and soon I was stupefied by the vitality of the backyard gardens. I wanted to see how flowers look if photographed with a flash in daylight.
This was about eight years back. For long I didn't know how to use the pictures – until the pandemic transmuted our life. When various restrictions had kept us in limbo for months, I thought now is the time to wake the series from dead and make a little book of flower pictures. Bloom!
Self-published (du/do no.2), 2021
15 x 21 cm, 36 pages, 20 colour photographs
Perfect bound, dust jacket
Digital printing on uncoated paper
Edition of 100
17€ LAST COPIES
Plostiņš
It is midsummer, the sun is hot.
The river is velvety, and the dogs
they are hairy no matter if black or white.
All the mysterious pottering around
with timber,
the fish that won't catch.
A pontoon. Latvia is a little bit zen.
Plostiņš!
Midsummer pictures made at the Daugava river in South-East Latvia between 2011 and 2019.
Self-published (du/do no.1), 2020
15 x 21 cm, 36 pages, 21 black & white pictures
Saddle stitched
Digital printing on uncoated paper
Edition of 100
ISBN 978-952-94-3441-1
SOLD OUT
Can possibly be found at Talka in Riga or Nide bookshop in Helsinki.
Liepāja After Noon
A book dummy: Pictures from the streets of Liepaja, Latvia.
2020
21 x 27,5 cm, 174 pages
Perfect bound
Digital printing on uncoated paper
Edition of 5
N/A
Iron Town
A DIY booklet containing pictures from Liepaja, Latvia.
2019
15 x 10,5 cm, 28 pages, 13 pictures
Hand sewn
Inkjet printing on uncoated paper
Edition of 30
N/A
The booklet is not possible to open flat for reproduction, hence the inner pages are digital mockups.
Studio Kapsēde (postcard book)
Close-ups of people's personal belongings and education devices at a village school in Latvia. Tracing down marks of personal and common history.
Self-published, 2016
11 x 17 cm, 36 pages, 30 colour postcards
Perfect bound postcard book with perforation for detaching cards
Offset printing on coated paper
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-952-93-6708-5
9€
CLICK HERE FOR ORDERING INFO
A Survival Handbook
A visual proposal for a survival handbook. Pictures from the Moscow Millionaire Fair, the Finnish city named Nokia, the Latvian countryside and many other places. Covering about 10 years of European life, these picks from editorial assignments and personal work are carefully laid out in a photo essay about the limitations of human life. Essay by Kārlis Vērpe. Design by Zigmunds Lapsa.
The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2009
10 x 14,8 cm, 128 pages, 67 colour pictures
Offset printing on uncoated paper
Notch bound
ISBN 978-9934-8078-1-7
SOLD OUT (Random copies may be found at small European resellers, ask for assistance)
Relating Latvia
Pictures mainly from the Liepaja region. Essay by Maira Dobele.
Co-published with Luova.fi, 2008
10,2 x 14,5 cm, 10 colour pictures
Offset printing on uncoated paper
Accordion folded
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-952-5755-01-5
0€ plus postage
Free for buyer of other items unless hindered by postal weight limit
CLICK HERE FOR ORDERING INFO
If Nokia Were a Place…
Pictures from the industrial town called Nokia. Essay by Sakari Sunila.
Co-published with Luova.fi, 2008
10,2 x 14,5 cm, 14 colour pictures
Offset printing on uncoated paper
Accordion folded
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-952-5755-02-2
0€ plus postage
Free for buyer of other items unless hindered by postal weight limit
CLICK HERE FOR ORDERING INFO
Hay on the Highway / Viljelijän sopimus
A joint project with photographer Yrjö Tuunanen, using interactive documentary methods. Portraits of farming families from the time when Finns were contemplating joining the European Union. Essays by Sakari Sunila and Yrjö Tuunanen.
Self-published, 1993
Offset printing on coated paper
Hardback with dust jacket
22,5 x 31,5 cm, 84 pages, 36 colour pictures
ISBN 952-90-4830-0
Last remaining copies: ask for price