Mikael Siirilä

I am a darkroom artist (b. 1978) based in Helsinki, Finland. My small individual photographs examine the themes of absence, presence and outsiderhood. My 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.

For me, the snapshot method is the superpower of photography. 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.

I am not interested in photographic projects, specific subject matter or storytelling. Instead, I seek small, quiet, poetic impressions that appear suspended in time, detached and solemn like unlabelled objects in a history museum.

The craft of printmaking is inseparable from my artistic expression. I work solely with black & white film and the darkroom. The slow, contemplative process lends the pictures a calmness. I make physical pictures I want to stare at, feel and become lost in. Again and again.