3/31/2014

Colorful village school (part 2), Pirkanmaa, Finland




In the old classroom painted naked women watched every step I took. Time was peeling paint off from the walls and an empty platform was waiting for a teacher to stand on it and speak wise words. I guess this room has been an atelier after school years. The whole room was bathed in light because of the huge windows - it must have been a perfect light for painting. Both "pregnant woman" -paintings were maybe my favourites but I also loved a door with four landscapes.
   A collection of green and white empty bottles was almost an another piece of art. The person who had lived there had had a beautiful touch and visual eye to turn casual things into compositions. With all the colorful walls, ceilings and furniture I think this place was the most beautiful school I've ever seen (even though I guess it wasn't this colorful when it really was a school). Being in the middle of all these shades, shapes and things was pure inspiration for me.


3/21/2014

Colorful village school (part 1), Pirkanmaa, Finland


Visited 13.3.2014 by skkye. I couldn't almost believe how lucky I was when I spotted this while taking a walk and enjoying first spring days outside. An old village school has been on my UE- wishlist for a loooong time! I was alone and it made me really nervous to enter this place. At first I had to check all the rooms, attic, closets and toilets and still it was hard for me to believe I was really alone. All the time my heart was pounding like a drum and all my senses were supersensitized.
   Later I find out that this place was built 1948 and it has been a school at least to sixties. After that, I guess it has been also a home for an artistic person and an alcoholic (don't know if they were a same person). The most recent newspapers I found were from the 21st century.
   The first room I entered was completely empty excluding roundworm pills for dogs and dried flowers and lichen between the windows. The lack of furniture made the voices of an old wooden house even more eerie. I spent a moment just standing in the middle of the room and listening the place creaking and whistling and trying to understand what it was saying.
    In the kitchen I could almost hear the pots and pans boiling and bubbling and children making crepes for sale. It made me a little bit sad how an old baking oven and a newer stove were standing together collecting dust with no meaning anymore.
   On the table of the vestibule were a pile of beautiful old maps, for example Cyprus and the western coast of Finland. Actually there was also a map from my birth town and this map was almost as old as I am. It made me think how everything is connected. Being in an old, abandoned building makes always these little coincidences feel somehow more significant than usually.

3/19/2014

Red country shack (part 3), Tampere, Finland


Here is the third part of the photos from the shack at the countryside, by a hay field. I was also kind of testing by new object when taking these photos. It is more luminous than my old one, and it really was a lot easier to get good shots in not-so-perfect light conditions. I still have to practice manual focusing though.