Walking through a town in the beginning of spring in Finland is a beautiful experience for eyes and lungs. Cloudless skies, long days, buds on trees’ branches about to bloom, the crisp air makes you feel alive and energized. This is the time when people get out of their homes carrying the joy brought by nature changing around them. It’s the time when we can slowly start getting out of those shells made of coats, scarfs, hats, boots and appreciate the warmth coming from the sun.
But this is not a normal time. While nature is let free of running its course, people face a crisis that most have never faced before. The danger posed by a disease, untraceable and at the same time potentially everywhere, has made the simple act of going outside of our homes a risky decision, something to do sporadically, only when necessary. This has caused to put our normal lives on pause. Even though we’re not prisoners, our studies, our work, our interpersonal relationships have shifted online. Life is now lived at home, sheltered from something invisible.
We suddenly found ourself with a lot of time in our hands to reflect on everything that is happening and to overthink about everything that will happen in the future. But every thought ends in uncertainty. Weekdays and weekends feel the same, sporadic fixed appointments with the external world feel like an anchor that keeps us from floating away in a sea of free time.
In a way, we moved to a simpler lifestyle, where social interactions have to be completely intentional, where we take more care of our house and don’t spend money on unnecessary things. We got to appreciate details of daily life that we usually overlook. And this is why going outside, even for a simple walk, is a desirable experience, as it allows us to observe how this situation affected everybody and to take a break from it at the same time.
These photos want to take the viewer on a quiet walk around the Helsinki suburban area right after dusk. During this moment, houses and streets start to turn on their lights, while the sky, transitioning from light-blue to black is still bright enough to induce a sense of uncertainty and melancholy. No one is around. Life is lived inside. The viewer’s eye travels freely, looking at the houses around, at lights, at nature, perceiving the particular atmosphere that complements this strange time.
Just like in Rene Magritte’s Empire of Light theme, the evocation of day and night at the same time has also the power to surprise and delight us, creating a mixture of feelings that leaves us to think and observe even more.
