Images produced by conscripts remind us of past destruction

In February 1944, a total of two thousand bombers from the Soviet air forces pounded Helsinki for three nights. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed or damaged. The Two Faces of Helsinki photography exhibition, created by the special unit conscripts of the Combat Camera Team, depicts today’s Helsinki as if ravaged by the bombings of the Continuation War.

The Two Faces of Helsinki exhibition will display nineteen photographic manipulations. They feature black and white photographs of the Continuation War era combined with today's street images from the same locations.

The project was produced by Anssi Uusitalo, Thomas Litchfield, Markus Kontiainen and Timo Kankkunen. The Combat Camera photographers are special unit conscripts who are serving in the Defence Command Public Information Division. They are soldiers who produce audio-visual materials on the activities of the Finnish Defence Forces on the ground, at sea and in the air.

Finding the correct shooting locations was challenging

The project team first delved into the Defence Forces archives, selecting the most suitable photos from among the hundred or so images available from the era. Selection criteria included the aftermath of the bombings being visible in the photos as well as the ease of identification of the locations.
Although the shooting locations were carefully selected, finding exactly the right spot was sometimes very difficult. Where the environments were badly destroyed and built anew, the only way was to talk to some older residents and ask them to identify the location.

– In Kallio, we had to turn to an antiquarian bookshop. The eighty-year old man behind the counter had lived in the area during the war and knew the correct location immediately, Litchfield says.

Yet the most time-consuming part of the project was image processing where the most challenging images where those where the present day vista is entirely different. It was important to achieve a significant connection between the old and the new, to prevent them appearing as merely a combination of two photographs taken at random.

The exhibition will be open at the Exhibition Hall Laituri from 10 January until 4 February 2012.