Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The other side of the island

PHOTOS BY MONIKA CSAPO. THE QUOTES BETWEEN THE PHOTOS ARE FROM A KAHLIL GIBRAN POEM CALLED ON GOOD AND EVIL.







"You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom."

"You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the
hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the
shore."





I have been at this place already several times yet there is still always something new left to explore. Last time I climbed down to the shore in a bay what I have seen only from above so far. Now I decided to walk over to the hills behind my favorite spot. I have been to Suomenlinna already may be ten times (or at least six) but this part of the islands stayed unknown to me and as I saw now there is even an other shore a bit further where I haven`t been yet.

It was interesting that when the sun went down the temperature got much colder within ten-fifteen minutes. I think this spot is my new favorite place now on the island. It would be cool to have the chance to spend here one week photographing in spring, summer, autumn and winter and make an album of the photos. Not to leave the island for one week (there are cafes, restaurants and shops so it is not the complete wilderness), go out to shoot in the morning, during the day, in the evening a bit after sunset. Invite some people to model or take portraits of the inhabitants..I remember in February we talked with a woman who lives here and was walking her dogs when we met. Lately it has been somehow very easy to connect with people while taking photos. They just always start to talk and that`s it. So for sure there would be some random models always.

It is this weird circle of life that during our lives we loose places but then gain new ones too. After people passing away, break ups or life changes certain places disappear from our life but as life goes on new places become important by accident or by choice. I remember that at the end of my teenage years I often thought about when being at my grandparents` places how it will feel when that what is so natural now will not exist any more. It felt very strange and it took years to fill the emptiness caused by the losses but slowly new places emerged. There has been luckily a few of such places, one of them has been Suomenlinna. Others like this were Hanko, Florence and lately Copenhagen. It is good to be able to accept that loosing places is a part of life. But so is that that many new places will also come what we may be did not even know about that exist or would not have  imagined to be connected to before.

2 comments:

  1. How I miss this place and this sky...
    I used to like this part of Suomenlinna a lot, especially when there are people walking on the high hills - I have always loved the effect of people's silhouettes standing out from the sky. Very photogenic! ;)

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    1. Also the nature photo of the year was a silhouette photo this year in Finland: http://www.vuodenluontokuva.fi/vlk/ . There was a smaller debate involved because it turned out to be a mirror image- which is still not considered as manipulation according to the rules. Silhouettes can look so pretty and have some mystical feel.

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