F Is For Frozen.

Frozen.

It was Mid-January 2018 and the sea was starting to freeze for real, first in the more enclosed bays like Töölönlahti, which is in the middle of the Helsinki Peninsula. I was on my way to sauna, and wanted to take a few photos. The sea had been a bit higher when it froze, so some rocks had broken through the ice when the sea level sunk.

The bonus picture is edited from the same original, getting both the rocks and the other shore in the same picture just didn’t work. The cliffs are Linnunlaulu cliffs and the white building with the tower is Villa Kivi, a home for writers (more specifically members of the Union of Finnish Writers). In the distance one can see the dome of the (Lutheran) Helsinki Cathedral.

Click for full size!

© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

E Is For Exile.

Exile.

Eddie Boyd (born 1914) was an African-American blues artist (singer, songwriter and pianist) who moved to Europe to get away from the racial discrimination in the U.S. in the late 1960s, ending up in Helsinki, Finland in 1970. He married his Finnish girlfriend in 1977 and died in Helsinki 1994 at the age of 79.

Boyd had some hits in the U.S. in the early 1950s, the biggest one being Five Long Years. In Europe he recorded and toured with Fleetwood Mac ja John Mayall Bluesbreakers and various Dutch and Finnish musicians. He performed blues until 1984, concentrating on gospel music in the last decade of his life. Click for full size!

© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

B Is For Basilika.

Basilika.

Finnish for basil. This one grew on my window last year and was replanted once more to a bigger pot, similar to the one in the left before getting eaten with pasta and tomato sauce. The both white plastic pots are self-watering pots, the water goes down a pipe to the reservoir in the bottom.

Click for full size!

© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

A Is For Arbetarrörelse.

We have a new series, from Ice Swimmer. Many photographers do an alphabet round at least once, it’s fun and it’s a challenge on several different levels, finding a descriptive photo to correspond to each letter of the alphabet. I’ve done this several times myself, back in the day, but Ice Swimmer elevates this from the standard challenge, and is bringing us words in Finnish, Swedish, and English. Fun, and we all get to learn something!

Arbetarrörelse.

Swedish for Labour movement. The Art Nouveau style stone building is Helsingin työväentalo (Helsinki Labour Hall) which is nowadays operated commercially as a congress centre. There were both Finnish and Swedish speaking workers in Helsinki. The facade of the building was built from the stones quarried from the rock that stood at the site. The oldest part of the building was completed in 1908, nine years before the Finnish Independence. Most other labour halls in Finland were wooden buildings.

Click for full size!

© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

A Love Letter To Bolivia.

© Kevin Faingnaert.

© Kevin Faingnaert.

© Kevin Faingnaert.

© Kevin Faingnaert.

Belgian photographer Kevin Faingnaert spent a month capturing what he calls a love letter to Bolivia, penned to, “the land and to the generations of people and animals who have shaped it.”

Bolivia is a country of extremes: from the Andes to the Amazon, its landscape offers seemingly infinite horizons, each more spectacular than the next. Enchanted by both the topographic extremes and the cultural tradition of the country, Faingnaert photographed what he saw as he traveled from the famed Lake Titicaca, across the Salt Flats and to the wild-west of the country. In the interview below, we spoke to him about his month in Bolivia, the majesty of its landscape, and the traditions that still thrive there.

You can read and see so much more at iGNANT. Amazing photographs!

Snowprints.

From Ice Swimmer: These footprints in snow were on dry land and on the sea ice, or both in Helsinki, first four near the former Presidential Residence, Tamminiemi and the museum island Seurasaari and the last two near the Hietaranta beach and Hietaniemi cemetery. Click for full size!

© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

A Place To Hide.

From David: Here are a few pix of a nice, snug, hideout, one where you a person can withdraw, yet observe, embrace the peace of the dark, yet still see the light, and one that’s not too hard to get out of when it is time to embrace life again. What a magnificent tree, and a splendid hiding place. I love such places, they have a tangible magic and peace to them. Click for full size!

© David Brindley, all rights reserved.

Crows on the Railing.

From Ice Swimmer: These crows were relatively unconcerned of being photographed. The place is the bridge to the island Seurasaari, home to an open-air museum in which there are traditional wooden buildings transplanted from all over Finland, which would have been demolished otherwise. Click for full size!

© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.