christmas eve, hietaniemen hautausmaa (hietaniemi graveyard / sandudds begravningsplats).

large portions of the graveyard were lit only by candlelight, placed there by loved ones, the church or people who want to commemorate something or someone. most headstones had a candle in front of it, in a little well dug out of the snow. the candle light reflected off some of the headstone that had a polished finish. passing through groups of people one could hear numbers and family roles being mentioned over and over. “kuus vuotta” “mummi” “fem år” “veljeni”. some people standing in silence, some people standing in a group remembering or praying.

in the quiter parts of graveyard a strange inversion took place – the candles lit up the headstones causing them to become alive in a way, in the background people, wrapped up to protect from the cold, moved in a ghostlike fashion.

last week we went to see the “nuoret 2009” exhibition on at taidehalli here in helsinki.

following on from previous posts here (in 2006 & 2003), above is a video from pinja sormunen that uses a few seconds per day instead of a snapsnot. 334 päivää (334 days) lasts for over 30minutes so i only got to see maybe a quarter of it – a highlight of some of the moments is in the video extract above: the subject stands in the centre of the frame – in a downpour, behind her the rain falls in puddles in a courtyard. a simple and beautiful moment.

lots of other really fantastic things at nuoret 2009, its on until january 6th.

we’re all waiting.

october 2008, helsinki