Residency artists and researchers Photography Riitta Päiväläinen photographic artist Art Photographer, (Master of Arts, 2002) Born in Maaninka in 1969. Lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. Artistic work, conceptualizing a theme and shooting for a new photography series. ”The following themes interest me both as an artist and as a person: memory, memories, the history of the day-to-day, microhistory, presence and absence, leaving a mark, landscape, and the significance of place. I have used second-hand clothing and ribbons, for example, in my photographs and have placed them within a landscape. My work is very concrete and time-consuming. It is discovering a place, stopping there, getting to know it, and contemplating what it is prompting me toward, what it inspires within me. The result is an interaction, a dialogue, between the material (the ribbons) and the place. Saari Residence is an opportunity for me to get away from the day-to-day. I can contemplate and work on something new in peace. I am particularly intrigued by places. Why do some places call on me to photograph them? How do we see places and how do they live in our memories? How are memories of places from my childhood reflected in my photographs?”