Iikki Books, 2024. Edition of 500 copies, hand-numbered, hand-stamped.
Hardcover, 80 pp., b/w 51 illustrations, 180 x 240 mm. Photographs by Mikael Siirila. Design by SPRFLXGRFZM.
Mikael Siirila is a darkroom artist (b. 1978) based in Helsinki, Finland. His small individual photographs examine the themes of absence, presence and outsiderhood. His characters appear immersed in their inner worlds and moments of being: simultaneously absent and intensely present. The pictures also reveal the outsider’s gaze, lost in observation and reflection. My pictures are true observations captured with minimal interaction with the subjects. Their origin is in the act of looking, and they feel causally connected to the world. Siirila isn't interested in photographic projects, specific subject matter or storytelling. Instead, he seeks small, quiet, poetic impressions that appear suspended in time, detached and solemn like unlabelled objects in a history museum.
Siirila works exclusively with the silver gelatin process. He uses overexposure, high acutance development and pure blue light to pronounce film grain and craft a graphic look. He uses dominating black elements and negative spaces to reduce subjects to their essentials and lean towards the abstract. The warm golden-ivory toning with tea tannins helps the images feel familiar and approachable.
