Hans von Schantz

ENTER HELSINKI

In these photographs the night encircles, isolates and simplifies the views. At the centre of observation are the anonymous architecture of the everyday and chance encounters with people. Helsinki becomes a mythical non-place.

In this summer’s main exhibition, ENTER HELSINKI, the photographic artist Hans von Schantz (b. 1961) takes us on a previously unseen descent into the reverse side of the day. The route followed by the pictures takes us from the city’s periphery towards its centre, through a rubbish dump, waste ground, industrial areas and slumbering suburbs.

The objects of the artist’s interest are not universally recognizable landmarks. Rather, the point is to see a landscape or structure as an expression of a (state of) mind and to sense the atmosphere radiated by a scene and its human presence as we pass from one zone to another.

In these stunning works Schantz, who is known as a master photograph printer, combines stagelike settings with authentic shots. The most recent pictures in the exhibition, produced in the 2000s, have their own subtle world of tone and colour. This is accentuated by the superb black-and-whiteness of the exhibition’s older, urban documentary shots from the 1980s.

“What interests me about photography is the relationship between the camera and time – the way that a slice of time taken out of its context has undergone a transformation while being suspended. I very rarely direct or set up photographing situations, in that sense I am a documentarist. I look for surprises brought about by the absence of control.”

Meet the Artist: Hans von Schantz talks about his exhibition (in Finnish) on Wednesday 13.6. at 18. Museum entrance fee.