Finland in WWII

[bixaorellana]

From The Atlantic:
Last month the Finnish Defence Forces put an archive of 160,000 WWII-era photographs online. The images record the war years from 1939 to 1945, spanning three conflicts the Finns recognize as the Winter War (against an invading Soviet Union), the Continuation War (striking against the Soviets alongside the Germans) and the Lapland War (against the Germans for control of Lapland).

Open the link to be taken not only to history, but to some astounding photography. At the bottom of the site page is a link to the full archive.
www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/finland-in-world-war-ii/100519/


captioned: 62-year-old Finnish-American volunteer soldier Hyvönen going to the front, in Mikkeli, Finland, on September 4, 1941.

[Don Cuevas]

Stunning images. Thanks.

[htmb]

The comments after the photos are interesting, too.

[nautiker]

thanks for drawing attention to this collection. these pics elicit very mixed emotions: though they have a fascinating documentary appeal, sometimes they cross into a mannerism that I find deeply repelling...

btw, anyone already aware of this collection: [http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/]?

[bixaorellana]

Very interesting comment about mannerism, Nautiker. I've been thinking about it ever since I read your post this morning.

I noticed it, but wasn't sure if it was deliberate or not. That shot in the hospital shelter, for instance -- it's so perfect, it looks posed. But how? Also, some of the drama in that picture is because of the bleak, flatly bright lighting. The question is: did the photographer do that deliberately, or was the picture exposed by someone else? Maybe I missed it, but there's no info on the photographers. Surely some of them must have been photojournalists, but perhaps others were enlisted men who were issued cameras & told to take pictures. If so, did they have the leisure to develop their own pictures? Maybe their film was turned over to a darkroom division & developed with no thought to artistry. As you can see, I've given this some thought!

Thanks for the link to the aerial photo collection. What a big undertaking, with much more to go.

[Deleted]

Very compelling photographs, but it's true -- sometimes they are "too" perfect.

I suppose it is the appropriate moment for the famous Pathé newsreel of the bombing of Helsinki but for some reason I cannot locate it at the moment.

[nautiker]

maybe mannerism wasn't phrased too well, I'm just very ambigious about this topic, since photography is never really neutral, and especially not during war times - I'm always wary that photographers are either instructed to deliver a certain type of pics or that pics get selected by authorities who're looking for backup regarding their cause. there's a very thin line between what I personally accept as 'documentary' and what I dismiss as 'biasing', and I'm convinced it's very individual where each of us draws this line - and that quite often one is guessing it wrong anyway. that's why I sometimes prefer obviously manipulative pics, as I believe I can try to filter the subtext. or I try to disregard the captions, so I can try to cut out who's trying to sell me something.

and then there's sometimes 'aesthetics' that really put me off, e.g. the frozen horse like a marble sculpture where I can envisage the photographer carefully selecting the 'best' angle or the helmets between the rocks that try to find a sort of beauty I consider wholly inappropriate under such circumstances...

maybe the situation got better nowadays with governments no longer holding a monopoly on which images get published, though I'm not 100% convinced.

kerouac, I've been trying to track down that newsreel after you mentioned it, yet without success, too. in case you happen to retrieve it sometime, I'd be interested in a link - thank you!

[bixaorellana]

Nautiker, as soon as I read the essay below, I thought of what you said above. It doesn't echo what you said, but is to a degree running parallel to it.

I do understand and appreciate what you're saying. I think I fall into the trap of thinking that something old is somehow more innocent. But obviously the Finnish pictures aren't that old and very possibly there was nothing innocent in how they were obtained, framed, etc.

Anyway, here is the essay. Please see what you think: flavorwire.com/399094/why-annie-leibovitz-is-wrong-about-the-state-of-photography/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=flavorwire&utm_campaign=standard-post

[nautiker]

sorry for the late return to this thread, yet I didn't want to just scribble down a reply.

first of all thanks for that link, bixa - and I think I caught what parallels you were aiming at. However it seems to me as if they’re mixing things up in that article, they’re constructing oppositions where there aren’t. IMO it’s very hard to divide photography into ‘art’, ‘documentary’ etc. , the boundaries are just too fluctuating. I guess no one will contradict that an amateur snapshot can create powerful images – media is full of these and we hardly know the photographers names. On the other hand, I don’t necessarily expect great artists to come up with regular and lasting contributions as regards the state of the world. Good photos aren’t necessarily artistic whereas good artist photography isn’t necessarily powerful – and I think one can enjoy both without remorse.

To me, an artist photographer is someone who put thought into his/hers pics: we cherish pioneers like Atget or Renger-Patzsch who had the presence of mind to document the ordinary life of their era or someone like Capa who had the audacity to take photos where no one would go voluntarily. The Becher’s had the idea to capture the beauty and complexity of unobstrusive manmade structures, and I very much appreciate the carefully staged pictures of someone like Jeff Wall. Personally I consider Gursky good yet overhyped (and he’s getting prankish), but he certainly added significantly. And actually, portrait photographers like Leibovitz or Corbijn appeal least to me, as I’m not that fascinated about celeb glamour – only enjoy people like Otto Sander, who was more into catching the ordinary faces of his time…

I sometimes wonder how many of the photography pioneers considered themselves as artists, ‘artisans’ or some completely new species…