{"id":298,"date":"2007-12-19T05:23:05","date_gmt":"2007-12-19T05:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/?p=298"},"modified":"2007-12-19T05:23:05","modified_gmt":"2007-12-19T05:23:05","slug":"life-in-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Life in Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life in Death \u2013 an evocative title, and with a meaning more literal than you might at first expect. Eva Persson came across, on one of her jaunts around Finland, a small town named Koulema, meaning \u201cdeath\u201d when translated from the Finnish. As small towns go, Death is quietly peculiar to the outsiders\u2019 eye and no doubt entirely ordinary to those who live there.<\/p>\n

Instantly attracted by the prospect of producing a photographic body of work entitled Life in Death, Persson decided to return to Death, although not entirely sure of her plan of action when she arrived. Little did she know that behind the fa\u00e7ade of Death, and its single, solitary store, K-Extra Pitk\u00e4nen, there was a charming story waiting to be told. <\/p>\n

K-Extra Pitk\u00e4nen is run by twin sisters Arja and Airi Pitk\u00e4nen. The twins work in the shop and also live together in the house behind with their husbands, who are themselves brothers. Each couple has one child, born just seven weeks apart. The quirkiness of the arrangement would excite any contemporary documentary photographer into action, so Persson set about making friends with the twins to persuade them to let her use their families as a subject. This turned out to be easier than expected: by using the magic word, coffee.<\/p>\n

The resulting book from her many visits to Death holds few surprises. We are offered glimpses from the Pitk\u00e4nen sisters\u2019 lives and also the cultural peculiarities and rituals from this area of Finland. <\/p>\n

Persson\u2019s camera takes in the garish colours of kitsch decorations scattered about their house and she follows the sisters on their daily routines which revolve around working, preparing meals, drinking coffee and watching their favourite soap, The Bold and The Beautiful. The images are as static as one can imagine life is in Death. Still lives reveal boots lined up after an elk hunt, a dartboard on a wall (demonstrating a tendency for bad aim, with more tiny punctures on the wall then the board) and a shelf full of trophies and medals for some unidentifiable sport. <\/p>\n

It is the more curious images, that have a sense of a story only half-told, that are the more intriguing: the two separate master bedrooms practically identical, complete with plush red carpet wall hangings, Joni, Airi\u2019s son, aiming a riffle at nothing in particular in K-Extra, and Kalevi, Arja\u2019s husband, at the stove making dinner, sitting down as he does so. <\/p>\n

Persson does not convincingly unearth the emotional makeup of the relationships shared by the family. Most portraits are of a singular person. Indeed, the only sign of affection, albeit one-sided, is in an image of Arja looking up and smiling at her husband, Kalevi. <\/p>\n

Perhaps this was Persson\u2019s intention \u2013 only skimming the surface of her characters and relying mainly on idiosyncrasies of the unusual family arrangement. The result is somewhat mundane \u2026 lifeless, even. Who knows, maybe life in Death is as much fun as a party in a graveyard.<\/p>\n

Lauren Heinz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Life<\/a>Eva Persson<\/span>
Published by Musta Taide
\u20ac20
80pp Hardback<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nLife in Death - FOTO8<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life in Death - FOTO8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eva Persson Published by Musta Taide \u20ac20 80pp Hardback\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FOTO8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Foto8\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jon\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/52655249f7e3f6eff4e0fe2540d65137\"},\"headline\":\"Life in Death\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/\"},\"wordCount\":507,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/\",\"name\":\"Life in Death - FOTO8\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Life in Death\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/\",\"name\":\"FOTO8\",\"description\":\"The home of photojournalism.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization\",\"name\":\"FOTO8\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/foto8logo_blk.gif?fit=124%2C51&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/foto8logo_blk.gif?fit=124%2C51&ssl=1\",\"width\":124,\"height\":51,\"caption\":\"FOTO8\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Foto8\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/foto8\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/52655249f7e3f6eff4e0fe2540d65137\",\"name\":\"Jon\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6993c5976717725ffe3a4e678a401748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6993c5976717725ffe3a4e678a401748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jon\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/author\/wpadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Life in Death - FOTO8","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Life in Death - FOTO8","og_description":"Eva Persson Published by Musta Taide \u20ac20 80pp Hardback","og_url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/","og_site_name":"FOTO8","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Foto8\/","article_published_time":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","author":"Jon","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jon","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/"},"author":{"name":"Jon","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/52655249f7e3f6eff4e0fe2540d65137"},"headline":"Life in Death","datePublished":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","dateModified":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/"},"wordCount":507,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/","url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/","name":"Life in Death - FOTO8","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","dateModified":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/life-in-death\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Life in Death"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/","name":"FOTO8","description":"The home of photojournalism.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization","name":"FOTO8","url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/foto8logo_blk.gif?fit=124%2C51&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/foto8logo_blk.gif?fit=124%2C51&ssl=1","width":124,"height":51,"caption":"FOTO8"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Foto8\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/foto8"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/52655249f7e3f6eff4e0fe2540d65137","name":"Jon","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6993c5976717725ffe3a4e678a401748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6993c5976717725ffe3a4e678a401748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jon"},"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/author\/wpadmin\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ejRI-4O","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3391,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-life-and-death-of-buildings\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":0},"title":"The Life and Death of Buildings","author":"Jon","date":"15 Dec 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Guy Lane reviews The Life and Death of Buildings, a book and exhibition looking at the relationships of photography, buildings, history and meaning.","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/c131-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"lyon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/lyon.jpg?fit=470%2C471&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":111,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/v5n3\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":1},"title":"Vol.5 No.3","author":"Jon","date":"01 Dec 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Back Issues"","block_context":{"text":"Back Issues","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/in-print\/back-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/v5n3_275.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":537,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/photographing-dying-walter-schels-and-beata-lakotta\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":2},"title":"Photographing Dying: Walter Schels and Beata Lakotta","author":"Jon","date":"09 Apr 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Walter Schels' portraits of hospice residents just before and after dying are on display at the Wellcome Trust.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/blogs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Walter Schels\/ Wellcome Collection","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/080409-lifebeforedeath-475.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":227,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/legacy-of-the-falling-soldier\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":3},"title":"Legacy of the Falling Soldier","author":"Jon","date":"03 Jan 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Capa's famous image is celebrated among a suite of exhibits about documenting the Spanish Civil War at ICP. The controversies aside, how is this pictures so good at being an icon? Is the moment of this soldier's death also the moment in which \"modern\" photojournalism is born?","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/blogs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2615,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/bad-backs-and-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":4},"title":"Bad Backs and Death","author":"Jon","date":"26 Aug 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"My recent back problems pale in significance to some of the subjects of Jack Burman's new book \" The Dead\".","rel":"","context":"In "HOST Gallery Blog"","block_context":{"text":"HOST Gallery Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/on-display\/host-gallery-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2566,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/on-borrowed-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":5},"title":"On Borrowed Time","author":"Jon","date":"16 Sep 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Henrik Malmstrom shares the last few months of his sister's life.","rel":"","context":"In "Photo Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Photo Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/c129-photo-stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}