32. Tyler Mitchell
Guests: Photographic artist Tyler Mitchell and Karun Verma from museum's young adults group Photofuss.
Host: Erja Salo, Head of Education and Public programmes.
Erja Salo
00:01-00:34
Hey, this is Kuva ois kiva podcast, the first episode ever in English. It's impossible to translate. kuva ois kiva. I'm not going to do it.
And straight from the Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, Finland. And today we have a great pleasure to have you here. Tyler Mitchell, how are you today?
Tyler Mitchell
00:34-00:37
I'm good, thank you, happy to be here, excited.
Erja Salo
00:37-00:42
Yeah, photographer and artist, and then we have Karun Verma.
Karun Verma
00:43-00:45
How are you? I'm good, nice to be here.
Erja Salo
00:45-00:52
Photographer as well, and then you belong to our young adults group, Photofuss. Yes, and you are an art student.
Karun Verma
00:53-00:53
Yes.
Erja Salo
00:55-01:24
So happy and honored to have you both here. And now we are going to look some images during this podcast and talk about images. And here comes the first one, as an old-fashioned ink print. I give you both one.
So Karun, what's going on there? What do you see?
Karun Verma
01:24-01:39
It looks like a very autumnal season, very dark, very Finnish autumn darkness.
Erja Salo
01:40-01:43
What do you see that makes you say it's a Finnish landscape?
Karun Verma
01:44-02:04
I guess it's just so familiar to me.
The leaves have fallen off the trees and it's really dark, and I guess the only light source is coming from the flash of the camera.
And there's a man standing in the middle of the picture and looking back at us.
Erja Salo
02:06-02:08
And you, Tyler, what's going on there? What do you see?
Tyler Mitchell
02:09-02:49
Yeah, same. I see a man, maybe in his mid-late 40s, looks like he's standing in some rain boots and some oversized sweatpants and a rain jacket. Maybe it's been raining, looks a bit wet on the ground.
Yeah, like you said, the leaves have fallen already on the ground, off the trees. the trees look, their branches are very long. their branches are very long and straight, not curvy at all. Yeah.
Exactly what you said. The flash is basically there's a flash coming from where the camera is that's lighting him, otherwise it's dark.
Erja Salo
02:51-03:28
It's a work by Uwe Idudze. He's a Finnish photographer, and this is part of an ongoing book project called They Walked On Water and it's from our museum's collection.
And it's really a flash that we see almost straight to that man's face. He's called Sean C, and he's the first-generation immigrant. So it's a book project and also an exhibition that tells about the first-generation Afro-Fins in Finland.
Tyler Mitchell
03:31-03:32
And so where is he from?
Erja Salo
03:32-03:37
I don't know where he's living in Finland, probably in Helsinki.
Tyler Mitchell
03:38-03:40
But he immigrated from where?
Erja Salo
03:41-03:46
I think he was born in Helsinki. Or do you know Uwe Idudze Karun personally?
Karun Verma
03:47-03:55
No, but I think his roots are in Africa.
Erja Salo
03:56-04:10
Yeah, but I don't know what state. He was born in 1987..
So close to both your age.
How did it all start? Karun? How did you become interested in photography?
Karun Verma
04:12-05:27
For me, photography, I guess.
It started when me and my friends started to photograph each other, and maybe it was the age when social media was coming up. And there was this element of wanting to share yourself and what you see to all the people around you and have this kind of community of images online.
And for me, the first thought was to photograph each other and have fun and just dress nicely, and from there it evolved into. I took some photography courses at my high school, and now I'm studying art in the University of Helsinki. And I've done some more courses and had some exhibitions. And I guess the world of photography has just taken me.
It's difficult to say because I never imagined photography to be a career path, it was never advertised to me.
Erja Salo
05:28-05:30
Something really organic and natural.
Karun Verma
05:30-05:37
Yeah, no one ever said to me, do you want to be a photographer? And it kind of happened magically.
Erja Salo
05:37-05:40
What was the social media platform that you used?
Karun Verma
05:40-05:41
For me, it was Instagram.
Erja Salo
05:42-05:44
Okay, so you're that Instagram generation?
Karun Verma
05:44-05:46
Yeah, born in the 2000s.
Erja Salo
05:47-05:50
Yes, and you, Tyler, how did it all start?
Tyler Mitchell
05:51-07:55
Yeah, pretty similar to you, actually, I would say similar. I didn't grow up in an artistic family, so I didn't have natural exposure to creative things. I didn't have, let's say, a parent who was a photographer or a painter.
But I found my inspiration online as well, actually on Tumblr, so I'm maybe a generation slightly before you. Because I think Instagram is now kind of what Tumblr was, which was basically an avalanche of images that were curated from people's points of view.
A lot of them decontextualized, so maybe uncredited, or curated together in a way that expressed a voice. It was kind of an early online curation platform, it was more curatorial than even Instagram, because on Instagram everybody's images get organized into a grid.
But Tumblr, obviously, you could code your own mini website, and you could put music on it, and you could choose the background colors. So it was very creative, and I don't know how I found it.
But I became obsessed, and I think from there, paired with my father showing me movies that were pretty nontraditional. I would say they were old movies, old noir movies by Alfred Hitchcock and other things of the sort, murder mysteries and strange old black and white movies that I loved discovering with him.
Because they felt different than what were in the movie theaters growing up. It was all that exposure to those kinds of things that made me think about being first a filmmaker.
And then later, as I became a student in film, a photographer, so I came at it in a slightly unusual way because of the movie angle. But now I'm very much. Both are very close to my heart, and I consider myself a bit of both a photographer and a filmmaker.
Erja Salo
07:55-08:09
By the way, do you believe in genres?
You choose one medium and then you go along that path.
Tyler Mitchell
08:09-09:16
No, I don't think so at all.
Personally, we've always known there are so many examples of people who have broken those barriers. Of the ability to be in one medium. There are just so many people who have done so many different mediums. Me even having two mediums is probably considered very conservative. In today's world, I think most people are performers, painters, lecturers, sculptors, installation artists.
And I think that's wonderful, I think, maybe my choice to be committed to. I always say I'm an image person, whether they're moving or still, but that's where the conversation starts. For me, it doesn't start from painting or performance, necessarily.
It starts from images. So maybe in that way, I'm probably the more conservative.
Maybe I'm more conservative than most artists today, because I think so many people in the 80s broke down the boundaries between mediums so powerfully.
Erja Salo
09:16-09:27
Just a question, since this is the podcast by a national specialized museum in photography. Yes, exactly.
Tyler Mitchell
09:28-09:30
So we are here to talk about photography.
Erja Salo
09:30-09:34
But maybe in the museum concept, it's a good thing.
Karun Verma
09:34-10:22
I guess the similarities between photography and video, or filmmaking are because for some time, we've had cameras that can achieve both of those things. And they're combined into the same package. Whereas before, it was obviously different apparatuses that you had to use and it looks the same, you have a lens.
For some people, they might perceive it as the same kind of instrument, and for some people, it is they take photos and videos with the same kind of tools. But I think the storytelling and the ways of working with those mediums are very different.
Tyler Mitchell
10:24-11:12
Yes, for me as well. I don't know why people seem strangely confused whenever I explain it this way, but I always say that. My first encounter with a camera, it had a video mode and a picture mode, it had capability in both. Whenever I say that, people look confused.
But all of our cameras do that now, even our phones do that, so that was my first encounter with cameras. So that's why, for me, I don't separate filmmaking from photography. I really see them.
Because at the switch of a button, you can move from one mode to the other. And so that's how I came to know both. And my excitement for making both films and photographs came at the same time. Because the one camera that my friend had that I borrowed a lot, could do both.
Erja Salo
11:14-13:07
Okay, our museum has a huge audio archive, and it's full of interviews, smaller, longer ones from the 1960s. Already. Now we are listening to one clip where a Chicago-based photographer, Carrie Schneider, talks about her work. Schneider had an exhibition in our Cable Factory venue in 2009. And the recording was made then.
(Audio archive) Carrie Schneider:” I was looking very closely at the painting by Diego Velasquez, called Las Meninas. And this photograph that I made is very, very linked to the way that his painting is structured, and so that there are everything, every component in this photograph has a direct connection to that painting. For me, it's not necessarily important that the viewer would know everything about that painting or that art historical connection.
For me, I'm interested in kind of using that painting to lay the tracks, to make this new work. That it could still kind of have all of the dynamics, the gazes, kind of all of the components of the original. But then kind of free itself from that and become its own piece of art.”
Yes, Carrie Schneider talked about her work, Las Bebidas, which kind of refers to Velasquez's painting, Las Meninas, from the 17th century.
So let's talk about the visual narrative, maybe if you have any reference to something, or maybe also mentors or important teachers.
Let's start with you, Karun.
Karun Verma
13:08-13:10
Wow, that's a good question.
Erja Salo
13:10-13:12
Visual references, maybe.
Karun Verma
13:12-13:18
Mine is sitting next to me right now, okay, one of the biggest inspirations.
Erja Salo
13:18-13:20
You're referring to Tyler Mitchell.
Karun Verma
13:23-13:51
As I said, because I get so heavily my inspirations from online and from Instagram, and from all over the world. And photographers who kind of have created their own paths and have achieved so great things that it makes me feel like that everything is possible.
Erja Salo
13:53-14:12
I have to ask, was there any particular image that you by Tyler Mitchell that you kind of fell in love with, or how did it? I let you chat a little bit about that.
Unique opportunity.
Karun Verma
14:12-14:57
Yeah.
I guess it's just the body of work is so impressive and it's something that I.
When I first saw it, I felt that this is so exceptional and this is something that I. These themes, I want to work with, these themes in my personal work as well. And just now seeing them live in such great size in the exhibition now here in Helsinki. It's great to have these images come to life in a different way when you're actually physically in the same space with them and experiencing them.
Erja Salo
14:58-15:07
Yes, so you're talking about the exhibition. Wish this was real, yes.
You might want to say something, Tyler.
Tyler Mitchell
15:09-16:41
I'm very flattered. I have to say, like, you know, I mean, it's wonderful to be all the way, you know, halfway across the world. You know, I live in New York, I'm from Atlanta, so I know very little about Helsinki.
I've kind of said, you know, this is my first visit here, so to meet someone who is, you know, even a little bit inspired by, you know, the pictures I've made is wonderful, and that's part of the point of photography, I would say. I mean, it's a wonderfully democratic medium, you know? It's a space where people can see themselves reflected or can see possibility in another creator.
And I would say, certainly, you know, I feel the same about many other, you know, older forebearers in photography. And so I think it's wonderful that we're here today, you know, gathered to talk about it, and yeah, I don't know. I think like, inspiration is a wonderful thing to talk about. Because the way people form their taste and then what they do with that after is always very interesting to me. Meaning, you know, I may have my own inspirations that are in the work for me, that other people don't see, or that I'm taking to a new place.
And so, yeah, to sit here and, you know, hear that. I'm excited to see where you go with your work and just to see, you know what you will do with. You know all the many things that are informing the pictures you take, so it feels great to hear that and very flattered.
Erja Salo
16:43-17:00
How about any important teachers? Very often, people tend to mention somebody like a learning curve somewhere that you have in high school, or later in the university, or among from some other community.
You're both quite young.
Tyler Mitchell
17:02-19:54
Well, for me, I had two. I had an art teacher in high school named Ben Steele, who was wonderful. I mean, I, again, I found art on my own. So I didn't really, you know, it wasn't like my school necessarily encouraged it. I went to a school where the priorities were a lot more conventional than that. They were. The priorities at my high school were really, honestly, sports.
You know, mathematics, maybe going on to become a doctor or a lawyer, these kinds of things. And it wasn't that. I wasn't interested in those things, but I was just kind of a normal student until I somehow came into all the things. I said. You know, Tumblr and even skateboarding culture, which I've talked about a lot, those things opened up creative possibilities for me. So basically, I arrived at art teaching as a program or a process very late. I, basically, my last year of high school, when I was 17 or 16 years old, begged a teacher named Ben Steele if I could get into his art program.
It wasn't a class that I could just jump into because it was an advanced class. But I begged him to let me do it because I needed the credit. And also at that point, wanted to take a left and fast track my life into studying art and film, and he allowed me, and that was pretty formative as well. There were a lot of great, there was a dark room in our school, there was a lot of great resources and conversations. And although I didn't know who I was or what was ahead for me, I think that was a big step in knowing that I then wanted to get an education in art.
And then I went on to get an education in film and television, so teaching is super important. I do think that education in art has really shaped my world view. Because, like I said earlier, it started pretty small. Or maybe I was receiving images in a decontextualized way. But I didn't know who Carrie Mae Weems was, for example, or who Dawoud Bey was, or who Gordon Parks was. These people were very important to me.
I wasn't aware of, you know, that their work was existing in a canon, in a lineage of other artists, and what the art historical sort of line of things is. I think once you understand that more as an artist, you really can make things from a much more informed point of view. Where you can say, well, this inspired this, and you know, I'm inspired by all of that. So how do I carry it forward, or how do I do something different or break away?
That's kind of how art has always operated. Someone has had to respond to the thing that came before in either a positive or a negative way. And I do think when you have teachers that teach you that you really make art differently. Anyway, that was a long answer.
Erja Salo
19:55-19:56
How about you, Karun?
Karun Verma
19:57-20:55
For me, my first venture into the art space was through music. And music has been for the longest time the number one art in my life. But only recently, Photography has risen up to that as well, and I guess that still shows in my work.
Especially when looking at the relationship of music and video, for example, in popular culture. And these references that I feel like are present in my work, and also music was for me the first time when I allowed myself to create without boundaries. And kind of have that feeling of making something for myself and enjoying it and playing with it.
Tyler Mitchell
20:57-22:37
I mean, I would say music is, in a way, much more fascinating than photography. I'm a photographer, but if I could make music, I would for sure, because I don't have a musical bone in my body. But the ability to channel, you know, what musicians channel into their work, is really fascinating. And I think in a weird way, I don't know.
This is maybe controversial or something, but there's kind of, like, very little visual art without music. In a way, I do think that's pretty cool that you started there, and I wonder how you can keep that a part of your work.
Because I think if I were able to make music, I would certainly be doing it. It's one of the things that just moves so much, universally, without a thing being said, and beyond its power.
It can contain within a universe because it comes along. It almost is like a total artwork. It's performance, it's performed, it's recorded, it comes along with image. If you're a musician, it comes along with visuals, videos, films.
It creates an entire world for a viewer to very easily sink into. Yeah, I'm curious. I think there's a lot that's been made about how to bring music and visual art closer, because I think visual art. Still, there's a level of inaccessibility. Some people may look at something and say, Well, why is that important?
Everyone looks at music and can immediately say, Well, I think that's important because it makes me feel a kind of way.
Erja Salo
22:38-22:44
Yeah, it seems like nowadays people are really looking for bodily immersive experience.
Tyler Mitchell
22:45-23:15
Yeah, I think so. Not that things visually are bad. But just posing the question of how to bring photography closer to the power of music, I think, is a nice thing to think about, like, how to make.
An image atmospheric enough that you can almost hear it or something, or how to make an image potent enough that you can feel the senses in the work. I think it's kind of cool.
Erja Salo
23:16-23:24
Could you imagine, Tyler, that, for example, here now, in your exhibition, wish this was real, there could be music.
Tyler Mitchell
23:25-24:12
Yeah, typically there is. ah, okay, typically there is. I mean, there's the video work. Wish this was real, which unfortunately we couldn't include here in this venue.
But it is the catalyst of the title of the show and is a video work that I made nine years ago, now, as a film student. It has this very atmospheric music as the soundtrack, as the score to the film, and the atmospheric music is nice when it's in the exhibition because it bleeds into all the other spaces. When you're looking at the photographs, and I don't necessarily, you don't need that music to enjoy the photographs.
I hope the photographs just stand on their own, but when you have that, it does change the experience.
Erja Salo
24:15-24:30
Okay, let's talk about the change. Do you think that the photography or image can have an impact, maybe even political?
Like, advocacy, what do you think, Karon? How is that in your work?
Karun Verma
24:31-26:56
Yeah, I believe that when artists make it, it's almost by definition from the viewpoint of the artist and what the artist wants to influence. And what kind of change do they want to enforce and to bring? And I believe that whenever we look at someone's art, we see maybe it's conscious or unconscious, maybe it's what they have seen or felt. But I feel like there is this feeling that translates of their goals and their mission to say whatever they want to.
And kind of have their own world that they want to translate to the viewer.
These young people here in Finland and I feel like there has been a lot of talk around young people and how they think in a very negative way. And just wanting to give a face and presence to the people who are not heard in the public conversation as much.
And I feel like with any kind of artwork, whenever an artist makes something, it comes from a personal place, and this work is also very personal to me. And I feel like there is a freedom when you create from your own personal world. And you kind of have this opportunity to make something that you also feel personally satisfied by. And you have this kind of mission that you want to share with the world.
And this is actually a self-portrait from the series. And I usually don't emphasize that with any text in the exhibitions or whatever. But I guess that it kind of emphasizes the fact that this work is very personal to me.
Erja Salo
26:56-27:07
So you wanted to be part of that? Yes, I see the orange Helsinki metro behind, and now that I know it's you standing there in the leather jacket.
Karun Verma
27:08-27:10
Yeah, it's like a varsity jacket.
Erja Salo
27:12-27:20
And what was the process behind that particular image? was it planned, how was it set up?
Karun Verma
27:21-27:41
Yeah, I was photographing a lot of these images in east Helsinki, where I'm originally from. And the element of metro is very essential to East Helsinki, because that's the main way to get to the downtown area of Helsinki.
Erja Salo
27:41-27:43
About 30 minutes, isn't it?
Karun Verma
27:44-29:12
Yeah, 20-30 minutes. And the metro is something that I take for granted that I've been traveling on my entire life. Living in Vuosaari and coming to the downtown for school, for leisure, for any kind of things. And I wanted to place myself in that kind of surrounding.
And kind of challenge the viewer to see me in a different light. Whenever I tell anyone that this is me in the photo, they get surprised. I didn't recognize you because obviously I have partly covered my face. But there is this element in this work of the
Outside gaze. And how the young people who are living their life and dressing the way they dress and spending time in these shopping centers and public places. There is a difference in how they experience their daily lives and how people around them perceive them.
And I think that's where the problem of the negative associations come from.
Erja Salo
29:13-29:16
What kind of feedback have you gotten from that series?
Karun Verma
29:16-29:37
From the series, especially from a video work that's also part of the series where I interview a young person. The response has been, people are very surprised at how smart and aware of these young people are.
Erja Salo
29:37-29:39
So you're breaking up the stereotypes?
Karun Verma
29:40-29:41
I guess so.
Erja Salo
29:41-29:45
You're having an impact, definitely, can you relate, Tyler?
Tyler Mitchell
29:47-30:52
Yeah, I'm curious.
Just hearing that, I'm curious about the dynamic here. I've heard in my few days here a bit about east Helsinki being an area that's primarily made up of different, not primarily, but maybe where a lot of different ethnicities live. So, you know, it's interesting drawing parallels to New York.
To other cities in general, you know, this is my first time in this city. But it's funny how the geography, the east of a city tends to be where marginalized groups of people live. I don't know why that is, so I was left thinking about that.
And then I see the. I noticed the subway, the metro in the picture, traveling from left to right, which would be from west to east. In terms of the picture. And you know, I also, the colors of the Helsinki Metro are very distinctive, they're almost like a cautionary orange.
Erja Salo
30:52-30:53
Have you used the metro already?
Tyler Mitchell
30:54-31:00
Yes, once the seats are, like, you know, like eye-piercing orange.
Erja Salo
31:01-31:03
Not like in New York, No.
Tyler Mitchell
31:03-33:16
No, very different colors, and so, I mean, orange to me, is a color of, you know, caution in a way, or watch out. I don't know if that's the nature here in Helsinki.
But orange is a very powerful color, a very potent color, so most of your composition in the picture is orange.
And it creates a dynamic with the person in the photograph, I would say this blurred symbol of caution with the figure I'm interested. Like, there's a picture I made of a young couple standing in front of an American flag tattered American flag called All-American Family Portrait and the family.
Girlfriend and boyfriend and their twin daughters, two twin six-month-old daughters, and they're together. In these orange vests, orange jackets, like they look like in America, they would look like kind of a construction worker vest or jacket. They look almost like, and they have a 3m reflective detailing all around the jacket.
And so there's a flash hitting the both of them, and the light is being reflected on the trimming of the jacket. And it almost looks like the metro here in the picture. Because there's like this caution that gets read from the orange protective vest and the family's protective. And I'm just thinking about all of that in the picture.
And I'm curious to know more about you know what your what the you know stereotypes and conversations you're interested in having here in Helsinki with your work. And, you know again, that's me approaching it from my vantage point. But it's always nice to be in a new place, to know more through your work. What the conversations are about stereotype, about race in Helsinki, about geography, the metro, you know, access, you know. So that's what your picture makes me think of.
Erja Salo
33:18-33:23
And then yours, Tyler, what do you have on your phone? It's one image from the exhibition, I bet.
Tyler Mitchell
33:23-33:26
Well, maybe I'll change it now. okay, maybe I will take it.
Erja Salo
33:27-33:30
Feel free, you can react to that.
Tyler Mitchell
33:30-33:43
Well, it made me think of the, you know, and maybe we've already covered it now, but it made me think of the All-American family portrait. So maybe that would be nice for the conversation.
Erja Salo
33:43-33:48
It's kind of a starting image in your exhibition, I don't know if you think so, yes.
Tyler Mitchell
33:48-35:04
Which is here. So it's, you know, the you know first image you see when you walk in the exhibition. And it's like, I said of a, you know, family. My friend Tyra, who's a young photographer, her boyfriend and her two twin daughters, six months old at the time. And they're standing in front of a looming, large, tattered American flag, which, you know, was not placed there by me.
I found it in an area in New York in Queens. And they're wearing. She's wearing basically orange overalls like work wear, and he's wearing an orange fire jacket. It's basically what firemen wear in New York and in America. So, again, the 3M detailing is theirs.
And they're being lit by a flash from my camera, so the light is really reflecting back at the viewer.
And they're embracing, holding, hugging, kissing their two twin babies.
I changed it to that because of seeing your picture, yeah.
Erja Salo
35:05-35:06
Instant impact.
Tyler Mitchell
35:08-38:40
We can, you know, be fluid. And I think the like it just made me think again, like I said, the metro and the color of the jacket felt very linked for me. And again, this idea of perseverance and triumph in the face of daunting symbols, you know, I see the American flag as somewhat of a daunting symbol, not a patriotic or necessarily a positive one. Because of the way that flags have been deployed in American culture, but also because of the way flags have been deployed in the south, where I'm from.
You know, there's a Confederate flag that was so like, growing up in Atlanta was sort of just like, rampantly everywhere on bumper stickers, on people's cars, at school, soccer games, in people's rooms, as banners. And the Confederate flag obviously represents. You know, in American history, the Southern United States desire to basically be their own confederacy. To maintain, you know, regressive and retrograde, punitive and violent laws like Jim Crow, or segregation, or even, you know, slavery to a degree. So the confederacy, you know? And the Confederate flag, by extension, stands as this very kind of nefarious symbol, evil symbol, yeah, kind of evil symbol. That I had just been growing conditioned to be considered normal, or to consider patriotic, or to consider beautiful. Growing up in Georgia, because it was so everywhere, it's like, if you see something everywhere, you think it's okay.
You would think the people who have it on their cars are nice people, why would this be otherwise? why would they have this on the back of their car? And most people see it as like a symbol of Southern pride, you know, quotation marks, or of, you know, yeah, Georgia Pride. And a lot of other people see it, as, you know, a very controversial symbol.
And yeah, I so, anyway, to go back to this picture, I'll try to keep it short. But this was made in an area of Queens, New York, which has a history of race riots. Well, I found out it has a history of race riots. We were shooting in this area of Queens and suddenly there were a lot of different American flags. Everywhere we looked, there were American flags in people's yards.
Then we noticed certain political signage in people's yards.
And, you know, when you're making images in a place that feels strangely, suddenly politically antagonistic. Meaning they probably don't want photo shoots happening in their yard, period, anyway. Like, we're a crew of roaming youth, young people trying to make some art, and we probably look like a bunch of art students. And here are all these signs, you know, and picket fences, and, you know, essentially symbols saying, you know, stay away from our property. And we were in a public park. And there was this looming, large, tattered American flag right at this hour in the evening, where things started to go from blue to black in the sky.
And yeah, I just made this picture because I felt it was amazing to make a family portrait. In the face of probably an environment that didn't want us there to begin with, anyway.
And yeah, that's my long story.
Erja Salo
38:40-39:09
Yeah, so there's a lot more than we see. I have to say that it also reminds there's a lot of, so many meanings. It also brings the 9-11 to my mind because of the orange, the outfit, the firemen, and then all of these images from the Robert Capa onwards. And when the man first landed the moon and the flag was put on the ground. When you have conquered something and you mark your own space.
Tyler Mitchell
39:10-40:10
Yeah, I always saw the picture as like, maybe one of the only sci-fi pictures I've ever made. In a way, because it's a bit like they're landing on the moon. What's funny is this idea that America is a place that welcomes people. Or promotes itself as a place that welcomes people, or promotes itself as a melting pot. Which New York is, but also maybe is not, in a lot of ways. This idea that it looks like a picture where there's a moon landing happening, I think, paints America, especially for Black Americans, as a place that is unearthly, sometimes unwelcoming, uninhabitable, and unfriendly.
Which it felt in that area in Queens. So I like that. It's kind of a sci-fi picture in that way, slightly dystopian, slightly.
Alluding to those ideas.
Erja Salo
40:13-40:30
Great, now we have a really special moment. We normally only talk about images here, not read stories or poems or letters. But Karun, you have something for your listeners and for Tyler Mitchell.
Karun Verma
40:30-42:37
Yeah, I want to tell you a story.
Earlier this year, in the spring, we made this zine with the PhotoFuss group and another group called Young Visual Art. The theme of this zine is being a young artist. And that's what brought us together, this kind of experience of navigating the art world as young people and kind of struggling to make way. One of the sections in this zine is called Letters. These letters are directed at our teachers, parents, inspiration, some other artworks that have helped us or inspired us in our way of navigating the art space.
I wrote my letter to you, this was made before it was announced that you would have a show here in Helsinki, my hometown.
The journey has been magical to now sitting here with you and being able to read this letter to you.
I'm just going to go ahead:
" I remember how impressed I was when I first encountered your works. Im not sure whether my interest was first drawn to you or to the attention directed at you and I don’t know how you feel when other view and experience your works. I don’t know you, we have never met. Yet I feel a sense of closeness to you, for you have shown me what a skilled artist is capable of creating.
Perhaps one day we'll meet and I can tell you how I remember you being a great inspiration to another young creator."
Tyler Mitchell
42:39-42:40
That's pretty special.
Erja Salo
42:41-42:49
I really have to admit that that's not the reason why Karun is here in the studio. I didn't know that either.
Karun Verma
42:50-43:00
It's very special to me as well to now have this opportunity. I feel like there's strange works happening in the universe that have made this moment happen.
Tyler Mitchell
43:00-43:29
Absolutely, I feel equally pleasured to be here with you again. Like I said, if there's anything I can share in part, whatever I can do, it's a joy. I know the exact same feeling where getting to meet some inspirations of my own, it's flattery that I can inspire you in any small way.
The zine is all letters, or it's photographs.
Karun Verma
43:30-43:33
It's mainly photographs, but there is these writings.
Tyler Mitchell
43:33-43:40
There's letters as well, that's very cool, so the other people in the group also write letters to other inspirations.
Karun Verma
43:40-43:41
Yeah, some of them.
Tyler Mitchell
43:41-44:13
I appreciate you sharing it. I want to say I'm glad this exhibition will be here as a resource for you, for friends. I think the goal of making this podcast and of being here in Helsinki is to share, to share. You know ourselves as photographers, to talk about the possibility of image as we're talking about, and to also share our appreciation for each other. So very kind of you.
Erja Salo
44:13-44:46
Thank you, this was a pleasure, Karun and Tyler, and thank you all for listening. This was our Kuva Oiskiva podcast from the Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, Finland. This and other 31 episodes you can listen in Finnish on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
And all these images that we talked about you can see on the museum's webpage, and there are some other links too. Thank you, it was a pleasure, thank you.
Tyler Mitchell
44:47-44:52
Thank you so much, I appreciate it. pleasure to sit down and chat with you both. Thanks!
Erja Salo
44:52-44:54
Ensikertaan!
