Asphalt and Sunflowers in Villa Hakasalmi
The Helsinki City Museum continues its series of highly popular photograph exhibitions in Villa Hakasalmi in October 2010 by introducing photographs of Helsinki in 1969–1979 by Simo and Eeva Rista.
After Kari Hakli and Signe Brander, the Helsinki City Museum introduces photographs of Helsinki in 1969–1979 by Simo and Eeva Rista. Having diligently recorded everyday life on the streets of their ever-changing home city, the vast production of the photographers offers a nostalgic journey to the 1970s in the Asphalt and Sunflowers exhibition in Villa Hakasalmi between 14 October 2010 and 27 February 2011. At the same time, a web exhibition and a photograph book carrying the same name are published with a wider photograph selection.
Specialising in architecture, photographer Simo Rista got in the 1960s bored with his heavy photograph equipment, got himself a lighter camera and directed it from the buildings of Helsinki to people and the bustle of the streets. For Simo Rista, recording the everyday life of city dwellers became a fun hobby which he then shared with photographer Eeva Rista, joining him on the photographic excursions in 1970. They always kept their cameras on them, and between the years 1969 and 1987, they took approximately 60,000 photographs of Helsinki. The photos were appended to the City Museum collections in 2008.
From the shadows of buildings as well as from streets and courtyards, Simo Rista and Eeva Rista found people’s Helsinki, which they shot on grass-root level. One of the most touching themes in their photos is the children’s world at a time when children were still allowed to play freely in the courtyards of the stone city and in suburban waste lands. A humane viewpoint is also distinctive in their news photography: in a festive monument unveiling ceremony, they pick children and elderly people, tired of the ceremony, as their objects.
The Ristas strived to depict the real Helsinki as honestly and bluntly as possible. Their aim was not to collect prizes at exhibitions but to use photography to fight for what was important to them. Their photos portray the contemporary ideologies and social phenomena that agitated people’s minds: demonstrations, traffic jams and fierce changes in the city. The frantic debate also led to positive results, for example, in the Helsinki city planning, which the Ristas helped with their photos.
The modern viewers will focus their attention on the nowadays lost phenomena that are present in Simo Rista’s and Eeva Rista’s photos: telephone booths, stone base shops, demolished buildings, mini-skirts and fashion from the olden days. On the other hand, one can recognise familiar characteristics of Helsinki: the stone building blocks in the city centre, wooded suburbs, the maritime climate with its fresh summer winds and slushy winters. The sincere joy of children has not changed in 40 years, either.
Audio guide, book and web exhibition
Over 150 photos are on display in Villa Hakasalmi. You can get deeper insight to many of them by lending an audio guide in Finnish and Swedish, consisting of the photographers’ memories from their photographic excursions. To continue the time travel to Helsinki in the 1970s, explore the by-products that expand the contents of the exhibition, such as the photograph book in Finnish and Swedish and the web exhibition in Finnish comprising almost 9,000 photos at
www.asfalttiajaauringonkukkia.fi.
Links:
Asphalt and sunflowers - Web Exhibition Helsinki City Museum
Text: Helsinki City Museum
Photo: Simo Rista and Eeva Rista
Ateneum art museum (380 308)
