Residency artists and researchers Photography Hanne Romppainen Photographer During her residence stay Hannele Romppanen worked on her exhibition BEING BESIDE and put the finishing touches to an art book to be titled 51 hetkeä, 29 omakuvaa. ‘During my month-long stay at the Saari Residence I photographed the elderly people in the nearby Häävuori ja Koivulehto residential homes for my next exhibition. The theme of the exhibition is the shared life of elderly people and others in sheltered accommodation. The exhibition opens at Hippolyte Photographic Gallery in Helsinki on 13 August 2009. On the same day my book 51 hetkeä, 29 omakuvaa (51 Moments, 29 Self-portraits) will be published also. It’s a collection of my camera obscura photos and drawings by my sister Maritta Romppanen, who passed away recently. The pictures and drawings are from the period when Maritta was succumbing to cancer. We spent our days together at home, in various hospital units and finally at the hospice. Over that period of nine months, my sister never stopped doing portraits of herself and the people around her. I documented that time with my veiled chamber camera. In addition to the exhibition and the book I began work on a new project, Tapettitanssi (Wallpaper Dance) while at the Saari Residence. It is a series of self-portraits done on the beautiful wallpapers I found at the Saari Residence, and it is my entry for the South-West Finland Hospital District’s Art in the Hospital competition.