Elina Brotherus

Born in Helsinki (Finland), in 1972, Elina now splits her time between Paris and Helsinki. After completing a M.A. in Photography between 1995-2000 (University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH) she has explored many series’, that have followed her life experiences. In 1997 Elina married, then divorcing the following year. Many of her images are self portraits.

Shooting in her native country,  France and Iceland she emphasizes place to provide more than an autobiographic ‘proof’ that she was in some geographic location. Elina’s early work is very introspective and personal including the Wedding Portraits and Divorce Portrait.

The period prior to her current work, which is almost devoid of any autobiographical element, was called Suites françaises 2 and  was begun when she began living in France. Chronicling the experiences many people share living in a new environment with a language she didn’t speak, and complete lack of familiarity, Elina’s work during this time shows a deep loneliness.

Throughout her work she has examined the topologies of people and places, in nearly all of her work both the person and the placement are of equal importance.

From an Interview with Jan Kaila (2002)

Divoirce Portrait 1998

When I began studying photographic art in 1995, I was still in the middle of my university science studies. I was strongly resistant to investigating my own emotional life.

When I finally finished my master’s dissertation in chemistry, I guess I was able to give up the scientific-analytical thinking required by that type of work and to concentrate on intuition and looking.

This brought about a tremendous burst of creativity in me, especially since I suddenly had some free time, and it is that period that the first works that ended up in exhibitions come from. A lot of old issues came to the surface and I began digging into my own head, my own history.

I made Wedding Portraits (1997) when I got married, Divorce Portrait (1998) when I got divorced, and I hate sex (1998) when I felt that way. So I wasn’t showing various women’s roles, but living my life and trying to capture something genuine and real about it in the pictures. A crucial factor was a sensitivity for recognising ‘decisive moments’ and then to react quickly.

Model Study 8

The camera had to be easily accessible, often I already had it read on a tripod in the corner of the room. I did make my pictures ‘for the camera’ too, but the more unforced the photographing became, the more the presence of the camera could be ignored.

I at least hoped that the pictures would rise above the personal level to become universal – over-intimate revelatory art is a bit unpleasant. That’s why I tried to keep the language ascetic and subdued: I didn’t want the pictures to scream, ‘Look, I’m unhappy, have pity on me!’

In retrospect, I have actually noticed that I reached for the camera more readily when I was unhappy. I worked the pain into a beautiful object that could be looked at detached from myself, and this consoled me a little.

In a way it’s banal, but it is as if art legitimates grief. I think in this way a lot of artists make indecent use of their own unhappy lives as material for their art.

Suites françaises 2 (1999) has an autobiographical background, but the series’ primary content, with its questions about understanding language, is something else. I see Suites françaises 2 as a transition between the old and the new work.

The fact that I have photographed, for example, in France and Iceland is, of course, a narrative element, ‘EB was here’, but I haven’t in any way tried to emphasize the place or to give it significance on the basis of geographical location.

Instead, I have been interested in pictorial elements, purely on the basis of visual perception. It has been a relief, something new and fresh. Now that I have been happier, I have been able to concentrate on observing my environment instead of myself.

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