Archival Studies / A Portrait of an Invisible Woman, 2014
A Portrait of an Invisible Woman, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 95 x 73 cm
Composition Studies (Lines), 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 63 x 84,5 cm
Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 63 x 47,5 cm
Grade Test (#0/#3,5), 2014
silver gelatin print, oak frame, 47,5 x 37,5 cm
Negative/Positive II, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 95 x 67,5 cm
Overlapping Landscape, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 63 x 45,5 cm
Composition Studies (Triangle), 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 95 x 73 cm
Viewpoint, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 47,5 x 64,5 cm
Reticulation (Close-up), 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 63 x 48,5 cm
Chemical Coincidence, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 47,5 x 38 cm
Double Portrait, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 76 x 56 cm
Untitled, 2014
outdated photo paper Emaks K888 UB 3#, developed and fixed, oak frame
Horizons, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 21 x 27,5 cm
Composition Studies (Rectangle), 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 95 x 122 cm
Tagged Dog, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 47,5 x 54 cm
Recurrence of an Occasion, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 37,5 x 51 cm
Untitled, 2014
Outdated photo paper Agfa Portriga-Rapid PRN 118 2# developed and fixed oak frame, 47,5 x 37,5 cm
Untitled, 2014
Outdated Agfa Brovira-Speed BN 310 PE 3# and Ilford Cibachrome-A exposed to daylight oak frame, 47,5 x 37,5 cm
Composition Studies (Circle), 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 47,5 x 58,5 cm
Light Leak, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 37,5 x 29,5 cm
Composition Studies (Focus), 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 47,5 x 37 cm
Composition Studies (Lines II), 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 63 x 93 cm
Negative/Positive, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 63 x 47,5 cm
Installation view, 2014
Installation view, 2014
Transition, 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 37,5 x 27,5 cm
Composition Studies (Vanishing Point), 2014
chromogenic colour print, oak frame, 37,5 x 51 cm
Archival Studies/A Portrait of an Invisible Woman was created as a response to a vernacular photography collection housed at the Finnish Museum of Photography. The 5,000 negatives that made up the original material tell a touching story about Helvi Ahonen’s life, with all its joys and sorrows. Based on this material, Vatanen creates a new work—a kind of imaginary museum laboratory in which fictive elements become mixed with archival material.
In her work Archival Studies/A Portrait of an Invisible Woman Vatanen explores the photographic archive as something that generates multiple meanings and that is a continuous and plentiful source of inspiration. She uses her works to discuss photography and archiving in terms of processes, randomness and errors. By focusing on the materiality of the photographs, Vatanen frees the medium of outside references. The photographic surface as well as the act of looking thus comes into focus as an essential part of the photographic image.