Ecce homo

Between Light and Shadow, August 5, 2024, at Gallery Laterna Magica – Photographs by Hannes Heikura

(Note: Click on the images to enlarge them.)

The late Hannes Heikura, in his final years as a photographer, moved through the lonely borderlands of being an outsider. His stages were public spaces—train stations, vehicles, and any soulless nook of the urban jungle.

He managed to channel the *Helsinki Trilogy*, comprising the works *Dark Zone* (Musta Taide, 2010), *We Walk Alone* (Musta Taide, 2013), and *End of the Road* (Like, 2015).

The universal, almost timeless strangeness in his reflections makes them resonate with everyone, even though the darkened places he photographed could be from anywhere. We constantly inhabit a space Heikura himself described as the *Twilight Zone*. Another name for that space is loneliness. Unfortunately, we often only recognize it after we find ourselves there. Being cast out of the community traditionally meant a death sentence among hunter-gatherers. It is still used as a form of punishment and correction in fundamentalist religious communities.

”Walking alone becomes bleak. Safe travels, traveler!” once called Kaarlo Kramsu, characterized as our country’s darkest poet, who wandered through an oppressive and lonely journey. His admirer, V.A. Koskenniemi, summed up that ”there are moments in the life of a people when the voices of the dead are heard uncannily close.” The echoes of artists like Kramsu and Heikura ring clear if one dares to detach from the restless human crowd and gaze into the darkness with eyes dazzled by daylight.

Tuonen Portti has dug deep into the dark soil of trauma gnosis with the help of its international network. It’s regrettable that we cannot discuss Heikura’s experiences with him. It is known that his sister drowned at the age of 11, and the family never recovered from the loss. That thought resonates deeply. The notion that time heals all wounds has always sounded utopian. The scars never stop tightening, and no outsider can sense the choking feeling in your chest. Only your shadow follows you silently, offering no solace.

Heikura did not live to witness the rise of artificial intelligence. He expressed a fear of the impermanence of digital images. Printed photographs are easier to browse and thus are viewed more often. The large-scale works chosen for this exhibition are undoubtedly at their most magnificent in this grand size, and it’s easy to see them reigning over their future homes.

Unfortunately, the lighting in the exhibition space is disturbingly poor, making it difficult to examine the works, let alone photograph them. My personal favorite is a shot from inside a bus, where a row of nooses seems to hang like in an execution chamber.

The *Between Light and Shadow* exhibition ends on August 10. Don’t miss it!

You can explore the photographs of Hannes Heikura without time restrictions via the following website: https://www.hannesheikura.com/

Text: Carita Hännikäinen