Laura Konttinen

A few years ago I found a photograph in my late grandmother’s photo album. The photo depicted a house and was taken in 1920 in a small American town called Salem, where my grandmother was born to a family of Finnish immigrants. The family returned to Finland soon after, and this little town became a dormant memory that was passed down only in brief anecdotes. But after finding the photo of the house, I started developing a nostalgic obsession with it. The house became a lost treasure, heavy with hidden meanings waiting to unfold at the other end of a faint genetic line that connected me to it. So, 99 years after the photo was taken, I decided to go look for the source of my obsession and rediscover Salem, a town full of myths and strange coincidences.

When the blackbirds return is a collection of images from my journey. The route passes by abandoned cemeteries haunted by long-gone memories, meandering paths meant just for getting lost and coincidentally, the very same blackbirds that appeared as messengers in a story told by my grandmother. And finally, my journey ends at the house where everything started a century before. 

Instead of building illusionary images with Photoshop, I create my works constructing surrealistic models for the camera. Each image is assembled over several days or weeks with delicate craftsmanship using photographic prints, pages from vintage books, clay or even 3D printed polymer objects. Using carefully considered camera angles and lighting, the miniature constructions turn into illusions of a wondrous world, where stories and memories flourish, unrestrained by the passing of time.

Laura Konttinen (Finland, 1987) uses photography not only as a medium but also as a raw material and a subject. Her work revolves around taking photographs apart. Instead of digital effects, she plays analogue tricks on the camera, crafting surreal compositions out of cut-up images and discarded materials. Konttinen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Visual Art in 2010 and is currently studying at the Photography MA programme at Aalto University, Helsinki. Her works have been shown in exhibitions in Finland and abroad, most recently at the Finnish Museum of  Photography and Schiedam Fotofestival in 2018.