What does the human world look like from the perspective of the creatures who have to live in it?
Living in Finland has given me many opportunities to observe this quietly. Over the years I have photographed birds and mammals moving through construction sites, tourist beaches, roads, buildings and other spaces shaped by human activity. Sometimes the encounters are unsettling, just as often they are funny, beautiful or simply strange.
Family of hares in a construction site in Espoon keskus, 2022
Most likely a gull caught in frame during the solar eclipse behind Haukilahden vesitorni restaurant, 2026
Gull swimming in an unintended pool of water after heavy rainfall during construction of a new apartment block, Espoon keskus, 2020
I am drawn to these moments because they make the familiar human environment look different. The animals don't know what our infrastructure, technology, markets or architecture are supposed to mean. They simply encounter the consequences of them, adapt to them, and continue living.
This is not intended as a condemnation of human development, nor as an attempt to separate humanity from nature. I am interested in the opposite: the uncomfortable and often fascinating realization that we are already deeply entangled. The environments we build become part of the environments other species inhabit, while their presence quietly changes the way I see the places I thought I knew.
This is not intended as a condemnation of human development, nor as an attempt to separate humanity from nature. I am interested in the opposite: the uncomfortable and often fascinating realization that we are already deeply entangled. The environments we build become part of the environments other species inhabit, while their presence quietly changes the way I see the places I thought I knew.
A swan's point of view at a busy Kivenlahti beach, 2024
Magpie digging for food in a trashcan adorned with a Bitcoin sticker, Aalto Yliopisto, 2020
Squirrel examining a parked car at a parking lot in Suvela, 2019
The photographs are observations rather than answers. Whether any of these encounters is hopeful, tragic, absurd or beautiful, it isn’t for me to decide. It can be several of these things at once, and every one of us can find something different.