MA work

I graduated from The School of Photography and Film, Gothenburg University in June 2000. In my MA work I used my studio, which is also my home, as my point of departure. I rigged a large format camera high by the ceiling above the floor and aimed it straight down and photographed every room in my home. The work resulted in a series of photographs on everyday life or traces of that life.

At the graduation exhibition at Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg, I intensified the birds’ eye view by placing the images on the floor, rather than hanging them on the wall, since the images are actually never upside down.

While working with my thesis project I noticed that all the objects in a birds' eye view photograph are equally important or central. By using a long focal depth, a small breadcrumb on an armchair at one edge of the photograph became as obvious and central as a line of toy cars on the floor at the other edge of the photo. Also I found out that there is no one obvious way to compose the images since the eye is unaccustomed in seeing interiors from a birds’ eye perspective.

© Sarianna Metsähuone 2000