Paola Suhonen. Southern Boys, Southern Girls

The works have been filmed in a small town in the conservative South of the United States, where religion continues to define attitudes related to the body and to sexuality. The people seen in the photos are framed as underliningly innocent in a serene setting, where their youthful wishes for experimentation might not find a space. The handmade wet plate collodion photos have been shot on a road trip in North America. The darkroom was sometimes built in the back of the car, and sometimes in a motel bathtub, or a tent. The most important feature in this technique is its unpredictability, a feeling of a process, and the mistakes brought into the image through the process itself.
Filming location: Hendersonville, Goodlettsville, Tennessee, USA
Production collaborator: Joel Jägerroo

Artist talk with Paola Suhonen at the opening ceremony.

Paola Ivana Suhonen is a Helsinki born designer, artist and filmmaker. Suhonen lived in New York for two years, where she studied for a year at the New York Film Academy. In the fall of 2010, she moved to Los Angeles and studied photography at the American Film Institute.