Forests of the North Wind

One lives in an owl pellet, another at the base of a dry- standing ancient pine and some need miles of wilderness. For some a metre is a great distance and for others a century is too short, but all are linked to each other through complex networks of interactions.

The photographs in the exhibition were taken in conservation areas in Finnish natural forests, of which only a few per cent remain out of the country’s forest area. The majority of forests, mires and small bodies of water have become fundamentally different from what they would be in their natural state as the result of intensive forestry. Numerous species cannot survive in the new conditions.

We are so used to landscapes shaped by humans that we risk forgetting what a natural forest looks like. Forests of the North Wind is the final part of a forest trilogy by two photographers – Ritva Kovalainen and Sanni Seppo. The first two parts of the trilogy were Tree People (1997), an exploration into Finnish forest mythology, and Silvicultural Operations (2009), which highlighted the downsides of forestry.