PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Open: tue-fi 12:00-17:00, sat-sun 12:00-16:00 (closed 19.-21.6.2009)29 May – 26 June 2009
Tapio Heikkilä
Change in the Landscape
Panel discussion on Wednesday, 3 June 2009, at 5 pm: "What changes do we allow in landscapes?"
- Tapio Heikkilä
- Mikko Härö, Superintendent, National Board of Antiquities
- Maunu Häyrynen, Professor of Landscape Studies, University of Turku
The Change in the Landscapes exhibition offers a selection of photographs from Tapio Heikkilä's doctoral research project "Visual Landscape Monitoring. Photographic Documentation of Changes in Cultural Landscapes".
The photographic method developed by Heikkilä is used to document cultural landscapes and their changes. The method is based on systematic rephotography, with identically composed photographed taken at specified vantage points in research sites at certain intervals.
The landscape changes shown in the photographs can be divided into temporary or recurring changes, and permanent landscape changes. Temporary changes are cyclical effects that are due to the weather, the time of day and the seasons, and it is these changes that account for most of our aesthetic interest in landscapes. Permanent landscape changes, by contrast, are caused by natural catastrophes or land use measures, and they often damage the landscape irreversibly.
Visual landscape monitoring has been presented internationally as a method that is suitable for monitoring under the European Landscape Convention, and its adoption is being considered at least in France and Portugal. Additionally, Heikkilä has conducted an initial photographic documentation of landscapes in Benin in West Africa.
The main target of Heikkilä's visual landscape monitoring project consisted of 13 landscape areas all over Finland, and 48 meadows in the southern part of the country. The rephotography project covered the period 1996–2007. The photographic corpus of the project comprises about 3,000 original negatives, their digital records, as well as colour and black-and-white prints. The material has been archived using archival methods for long-term preservation. It comprises a record of Finnish cultivation and heritage landscapes and their changes since the early years of Finnish membership in the European Union. The plan is to continue with the rephotography.
The photographers in the visual landscape monitoring project were Oiva Hakala, Tapio Heikkilä, Martina Motzbäuchel and Tuula Vehanen. Reija Hietala assisted in the determination of the vantage points. Exhibition prints were made by Jarkko Sopanen.
Tapio Heikkilä is a biologist and photographer based in Helsinki. He is Senior Adviser of Landscape Management in the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. His doctoral dissertation, Visual Landscape Monitoring, was completed at the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 2007 in the photography degree programme.
Ylöjärvi, Korpijärvi A2 12.7.2001
Tapio Heikkilä / Visual Landscape Monitoring
Ylöjärvi, Korpijärvi A2 17.7.2005
Tapio Heikkilä / Visual Landscape Monitoring- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Photographic Gallery Hippolyte Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary
Thirty years passed in December 2008 since the opening of Photographic Gallery Hippolyte. The gallery celebrates its anniversary year from 4 December 2008 to 29 November 2009 with a programme that includes exhibitions, a photographic festival, a cross-disciplinary art event and a residency. The anniversary events of Photographic Gallery Hippolyte are part of the Year of Photography 2009 programme. www.katse.orgPhotographic Gallery Hippolyte’s anniversary year has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Alfred Kordelin Foundation has supported the Year of Photography 2009.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Information and press images:
Petronella Grönroos, exhibitions co-ordinator
Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, +358 9 612 33 44, firstname.lastname@hippolyte.fi
www.katse.org
