Shallow Waters, Misty Waves
by Sari Soininen
“Shallow Waters, Misty Waves is a journey into what we no longer stop to see. Everyday details—foliage, power lines, streets, animals—transform into dreamlike visions when the gaze lingers a little longer. Nothing is entirely new, yet nothing looks familiar anymore. In the past, sacredness lived in nature. In pagan beliefs, forests, lakes, and stones were filled with spirits and messages. Animals moved through the world as kin, bearers of meaning and power. Today, we seek mystery through technology—through artificial visions and mediated promises—while the environment itself has grown invisible, stripped of meaning. We pass animals as we pass trees or stones, blind to their gaze, deaf to their stories. They have become shadows in a world that treats all life as material, a background hum to human desire. The images arise from chance and stillness. I use flashes, color gels, and long exposures to shift the ordinary into something otherworldly. The images are not digital fabrications, though they often resemble AI-generated imagery. This ambiguity is essential: the works mirror how our perception has become shaped by technology, screens, and algorithms, while our direct presence in the world has diminished. Yet within these surfaces, a hidden order shimmers through—an esoteric current of signs and symbols, a secret life woven into the visible. Through my own esoteric experiences, I have learned to perceive the world as layered, alive, and symbolic. Photography becomes a means of translating these perceptions—a way of revealing the unseen dimension within the ordinary. What surrounds us is alive with hidden stories, a secret script inscribed in the fabric of the world, waiting to be read.”
