Aurora Urbanis – Northern Lights in Urban Landscapes
A multi-year aurora chase around Tampere, the second most populous urban area in Finland, eventually culminated in a photo exhibition, questioning why this beauty in the sky is so commonly overlooked by those living right under it.
- Type
- Photography exhibition
- Year
- 2001–2004
- Status
- completed
Aurora Urbanis is the urban perspective on one of the most beautiful wonders of our nature: when the days in the North are getting shorter and the nights darker, one can admire the beautiful colours and forms of the aurora also in Southern Finland, even in the city. Together with the urban landscape, a graphic and colourful entity emerges from the aurora. Colourful arcs build a counterpart to the straight lines of the city and the diffuse glow that illuminates the sky merges with electric lights.
The unknown in the well-known
The landscape photographies of “Aurora Urbanis” are a collection of different views on the night in Tampere, a city in Southern Finland. It is not easy to distinguish, whether this is nature photography or reportage photography.
However, the idea of these photos is to wake up the viewer: The 24/7 illumination of the urban space as well as the rush and routines of everyday life lets the urban folks keep their eyes shut for these wonders of nature in the well-known environment, such as the backyard of the appartment block or the next bus stop.
New insights into the old life-world
The landscapes of “Aurora Urbanis” are not only colorful and unusual photographs, but completely new insights into your own life-world. Probably only a few people in Tampere have ever seen a green arc over the center of Hervanta suburb or have been able to follow at the beach of lake Näsijärvi how the rising autumn sun behind Teisko and the last beams of an aurora night are mixing up in impressing harmony.
The photo series “Aurora Urbanis” presents colour photos from aurora events in the city of Tampere and its suburbs from the years 2001 to 2003. The photos take their viewer along on a trip to these nights in Tampere and into the world of the Northern Lights.
Media
Hervannan Sanomat (April 14, 2004): “Aurora Urbanis tells in pictures about the nightly show of the Urban Northern Lights”
Even in the photographers’ own opinion, the Northern Lights are never as impressive on the picture as in nature. But the photograph has its own beauty, there is something special in it, that you are not aware of while taking it.
[…] when the Northern Lights became alive above the rising morning sun. That’s the moment, when all the standing and waiting outside pays off.
