Absent Minds

Fascination and frustration are some words to describe my feelings as a starting point to this series of photographs. For quite a long time I have been looking at people working by their computers, watching TV, playing PlayStation games.
It is almost the same, a strange expression on their face when they are inside a world of their own; faces in foreign landscape.
They are often serious; sometimes some familiar feelings can be visible on their faces. People are for sure physically present, but somehow their mind is absent. The source, the box with electricity, pixels, magical light, some kind of Camera Obscura or Lucida, is catching their full concentration.

The phenomenon is global. No national borders exist when surfing abroad and around. Imaginary landscapes are visited, even real human contacts are made through the earth. All this happens within seconds.

My new work is a study on this phenomenon of our time. For me it is not clear at all where all these electronic signals and impulses of light are leading us. Digital media is filling our rooms and our minds: The question is, with what.



Method: Images are done by a mobile phone. People who I want to photograph can just relax because of this simple camera. Usually they even forget my presence because of the strange power of these machines they are working or playing with. I also like the possibility of this small camera to play with color and light. Pixels are really interesting, large print size feels important - it makes it possible to study how color or light is built in detail, like a painting.

This series started when I was in residency in Czech R 2005. I still continue to work with it, latest images are done in UK autumn 2007 where I was in residency, hosted by FOTONET. www.fotonet.org.uk

City Installations in Helsinki and in Jyväskylä, FINLAND 2006 and 2007.
Technique: Digital prints on Canvas, size: 4 x 5m

Pigment Ink Jet prints, size: 140 x 180 cm, glossy lamination.

www.theiprn.org
Changing Faces, Culture 2000 residency in Tzech Republic 2005 in Usti nad Labem.

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