In Between (2014) is an allegory of a man’s longing for childhood and adolescence as he’s nearing middle age. It is about the longing for innocent, care fee and adventurous times. My work tells about growing up and growing old, and about being a father and a man.
In this project I photographed a group of friends that is comprised of men of my age. They call themselves the Trash Gang. I also photographed my two small sons and my 90-year old grandfather. The men are shown in bleak portraits at their own environments, while my children are represented in an overly aestheti- cized way, having adventures in the forest like characters in a book of fairy tales.
I photographed my friends because their portraits become also potential self-portraits of myself, or indeed, portraits of any Finnish man nearing middle age.
My own sons I photographed mostly in the same surroundings where I used to play with the Trash Gang when we were kids. These are like images from a dreamworld. Coloured memories of a childhood where you didn’t worry about the future.
The In Between series is a part of a larger work that deals with men, and which I still continue to work on.
