Purity of snow

The One Who Waits

Here's a pair of pictures, in a metro station the other day. They belong together obviously. Has been cloudy and grey mostly so I decided to take pictures of all the stations of the Helsinki metro. Not as much work as it might sound because there are only 15 stations in the entire metro system. :-)

I meant to put up a new post earlier but I've had quite a lot to do. The work on the article is still going fairly well and is quite interesting too (will try to submit the article to a journal for which the deadline is 1st of April).

On tuesday I watched the Obama inauguration, like a considerable part of population of the planet I assume. I was immensely moved by the power and eloquence of the speech, as well as the content. Clear signs of change already there: the proceedings on the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay have been halted for 120 days to review all the cases; Guantanamo Bay will be closed in a year; Obama's given a clear no to torture; Hillary Clinton's State department has been given full mandate for strong international diplomacy (whereas during Bush's administration the Secretary of State had very little authority), which implies diplomacy will have a strong role in Obama's administration; executive orders of stricter ethics and openness in White House administration; clear support for pro-choice with regard to abortion. So far looking good. Don't get me wrong. I don't think the U.S. will give up certain basic goals of its international politics. But at least there's hope that diplomacy will take precedence over the use of force.

This week has also been the annual documentary film festival, and I've seen a couple of films. The first one was "Suddenly, Last Winter" (link), by Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi. It is their own story, how their life changes when the Italian government presents a draft law on the rights of unmarried and gay couples which sparks a huge wave of homophobia in Italy. Depressing in places because I didn't know Italy is such a homophobic country, but lifted up by the humour and light in Gustav's and Luca's personalities. And it had a happy ending. :-). I enjoyed it immensely. The film makers were present in the showing to introduce the film, so that made it even more interesting. The other film that I saw was a representative of the new Indian documentary film, "Lakshmi and Me" by Nishtha Jain. The film takes place in Mumbai; it is about the director's house maid Lakshmi, her relationship with her, and through that, the still-deep social divisions in India. Also very good. Prior to the main film they showed a part of a series called "Indian diary", which is (I think) about the travels of a Frenchman in India in the 1960's.

Today, my brother, sister-in-law and younger nephew came around to ski on the nearby ski track, and my nephew came to my flat so his parents could ski in peace for a bit. Very good time was had. We played library. He was first the library lady whilst I was the customer; then we both were library ladies. My CD's and DVD's served as library books.

Tunnel

Here we have a couple of new pictures, some of the results of yesterday's shortish photography session on my way to the city. A bit of experimenting with darker moods. They do not reflect my mood at the time or now, however: I was in a good mood yesterday because the weather cleared and the grey winter days went away for a moment. Now I am in an ordinarily good mood.

Thanks ever so much for everyone who have popped by to check my pictures! I really appreciate it.

Random

Skaters on sea ice in Helsinki, 5th of January

Woman waiting for the bus, Helsinki, 10th of January

Here we go with two new pictures. The first is about 5 days ago when it was really cold. The second is a couple of days ago. I like this one a great deal, the mood of it: an ordinary scene, woman waiting for the bus, but the reflections and the water on the glass change the atmosphere and bring it more tones.

Nothing much going on really. Work-wise it's going pretty well as I've been working on an article at a good, steady rate. In photography I must say I'm suffering from a lack of inspiration a bit. Just a few successful pictures here and there but nothing particularly inspired. Must be the grey, cloudy January weather. Well, tonight I experimented with light and the set of glass marbles that I happened to buy in London. I've not gone through the pictures yet so I don't know how they turned out. I guess the marbles should provide hours of entertainment if I can't think of anything outdoors, since there are so many of them.

I did go the other day to the wild east, viz. some eastern suburbs which have a bad reputation, to see what they look like. I think they've come a long way from a couple of decades ago, but they're still the least well-off regions in Helsinki: the average monthly income is a bit over a third of the monthly income in the wealthiest region, in southern Helsinki. Also, the problems that exist in the city with unemployment, alcoholism, drugs etc. tend to be more serious in the regions like these eastern suburbs. I can't say I spent a long time there, but I can say that what I saw looked damned depressing to me. Concrete upon concrete, as they were mainly built in the 60's and 70's. Concrete in grey, cloudy January weather is one of the most depressing sights you can encounter on this planet.

Bright days

Taking a break from the London pictures for a while. I've got a few more but I'll leave them until later. I'm back in Helsinki now, though these pictures aren't from Helsinki but from my parents' place a few days ago.

I had such a good day today. Was a similar day as in the pictures: cold but sunny, the sort of day when, if you dress properly and warmly, the cold nibbling on your face is a good feeling, a fresh feeling. I think so anyway.

So, I got off the metro one stop earlier and walked a bit, taking pictures. When I was in one of the parks in central Helsinki, called Kaisaniemi, taking pictures by the skating rink, an older gentleman went by walking his dog. He stopped and asked to see the pictures I had taken, and we had a short but lovely chat. He told me he was born in 1939 in Kallio, the former working class district, part of the core city - a real "stadin kundi" in other words - and had recently seen a large exhibition of photos of the 60's and 70's Helsinki which made him realize in amazement how completely the city has changed from when he was young; said you don't really realize it that profoundly, just living your life. The gentleman then started reminiscing about his youth, among other things how the skating rink by which we were standing used to be fenced off and how they used to have bow skating events for the youth there: numbered bows, usually red for girls, blue for boys, then each were supposed to find the person holding a bow with the same number, and they'd skate in pairs. His parting words were a slightly melancholy note how now the park is a dangerous place at night (it's true, it has that reputation at least, though I don't know how truthful).

Explanation on stadin kundi. This is a slang expression. Stadi means "city", comes from the Swedish word "stad". Stadi is only used of Helsinki. Kundi means a "bloke". So a stadin kundi is a person born and lived his whole life in Helsinki, and not just anywhere in Helsinki but in the core city. There's a clear distinction between identities among the residents of Helsinki, a distinction that is stronger in the generations who were young adults in the 50's and 60's; it may apply still in the 70's: on one hand between those who were born and have lived their life in Helsinki and those who moved to Helsinki from elsewhere, on the other hand between those who were born and have lived their life in the core city and the inhabitants of the suburbs. To make the distinction even clearer, the natives of the core city used to have their own slang, very distinct from mainstream Finnish, with many of the words deriving from Swedish. This gentleman used some slang words, as far as I could recognize. It's not really spoken anymore, and those who know it are getting old. Well, I suppose the young generations of Helsinki now have their own, different sort of slang, or slangs. I guess there are similar distinctions in cities everywhere, each with their own variations. This is how it is in Helsinki.

After this pleasant encounter I made my way to the library and made quite good progress with work, which made me feel even better. Hope everyone else has had a good day too!

Welcome 2009

Here we go with a new patch of pictures. These are from the same day as the previous instalment, of Regent's Canal and the Shoreditch gasworks.

I'm still at my parents' place, up here in the north (600 km from Helsinki). I've a train ticket back to Helsinki booked for sunday. I've had a couple of very busy but enjoyable days as my brother with his family arrived for two nights. They departed earlier today.

Now it has got very cold indeed, -15 C. Really makes me happy that Finnish houses are sturdily built and well insulated, not to mention with good heating. The cold is supposed to continue tomorrow so I will try to get out and capture some of the cold winter mood. There's a particular stillness and kind of a blue atmosphere out there when it's this cold. But there's also something more to it, something you can't capture with a camera, at least it seems so to me. It's as if there's a hum in the air, not exactly audible but more... something you feel. A hum of stillness.