Spring at a Distance

2020, Tampere

On 16 March 2020, Finland declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic. Most teaching moved to distance learning, libraries and cultural venues closed, and public gatherings were capped at ten people. Keeping apart became the new etiquette of public life.

As a photojournalist, I usually work in the middle of things: at a protest, at an election-night party, or alongside the people in a longer story. That spring, the middle of things was exactly where no one was supposed to be. So I stepped back and went up, to see how the restrictions were changing the way people shared public space.

I spent much of that spring beside Sorsapuisto, a park in Tampere, Finland. Each day, I sat on the same jetty and flew a drone above the park. I photographed people giving one another room on the paths, children playing and birds in flight.

With fewer assignments, I had time to do the same thing over and over again. Repetition taught me the park’s rhythms and made small changes visible. Across the photographs, the paths, benches and trees stay fixed. Around them, people adjust to the restrictions, the pond thaws and the grass turns green.

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This series was made as part of State of Emergency 2020 (Poikkeustila 2020), a collective photography project documenting everyday life in Finland during the pandemic. I was part of the coordination team, which received the 2020 Suomen Kuvalehti Journalist Award for organising the project.

The project also became the book Poikkeustila 2020 – Kaikki, aivan kaikki on peruuttamattomasti muuttunut (S&S, 2021), bringing together photographs curated by Hannamari Shakya and diary entries by Hanna Weselius.

With thanks to the Patricia Seppälä Foundation for funding this series.