Interview by Kehan Lai

How did you find and choose the people you photographed in this series? Were you looking for anything special?

As this series is exploring the siblinghood through portraiture, I was looking for sisters and brothers that were at the certain age to continue my work with children and young people. I already knew some of them through my earlier work, some of them I met accidentally – in a restaurant or shop, or occasionally through someone I knew. I’m always looking for something special, but there is no specific rule for that. Some people simply seem to fit in my photographs - they might have a certain presence, timeless look or just appear very special to me for no explainable reason.

Ayda and Teoman © Nelli Palomäki — *Ayda and Teoman* © Nelli Palomäki

I notice that the hands-holding-head gesture has a major presence in this series. What does that gesture mean to you and how did you avoid making that a cliché?

True. The act of touching is a crucial part of this body of work. This comes from my personal struggle being physically close to people. I find it extremely uncomfortable to hold someone, or being held by someone for a longer period of time. I can only hold my own children naturally, therefore I find this closeness between siblings extremely strange and fascinating. I did not process this issue in the very beginning of the work, but I started to find the connection to my own discomfort somewhere along the way.

Together with the face and the gaze, hands play a great role in portraiture. If the hands are there, you look at them, and you analyse them. In these portraits, in addition to the physical closeness, they can reveal many things and change the nature of the image with a very tiny movement. Hands grab, hold, possess, protect and guide. We can read them extremely quickly without noticing this. I did make the hold, the actual contact, very active in these works. There are also similarities for example to healers and sometimes the hold seems to have spiritual qualities.

I am not sure if I avoided making that a cliché, but it was something worth exploring and leaded the work again forward to a new level. This work has developed from rather straight forward portraiture to a very personal study around the theme of the siblinghood and more over the theme of touching and being physically close to someone. It is still an ongoing project that I am hoping to make into a book next year.

Contact II (Dora and Vera) © Nelli Palomäki — *Contact II (Dora and Vera)* © Nelli Palomäki

Contact V (Janne and Sampo) © Nelli Palomäki — *Contact V (Janne and Sampo)* © Nelli Palomäki

What's the reason behind including the contact prints as a different form of exhibition in this series?

It wasn’t planned in the beginning, but as I’ve been working with these portraits for quite some time already, I wanted to explore new ways of making and showing the prints. Smaller prints were something I wanted to do for a change and 8x10” contact prints felt worth of testing, as I also wanted to go back to the darkroom. I love the simple idea with the contacts, and the brutality of making these prints – it is a very raw format of photography in a way.

Who are the photographers you look up to or get inspired by?

I’m mostly fascinated and inspired by portraiture. There are some amazing older Finnish photographers, like Ismo Hölttö or Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen whom I adore. Many of my dear friends and colleagues are the most amazing artists, for example Smith and Joakim Eskildsen - they both have an unusual way of seeing and photographing people. Of course I love masters like Diane Arbus or August Sander, and more contemporary masters like Rineke Dijkstra or Vanessa Winship.

Woman Crush Wednesday Questionnaire:

Describe your creative process in one word.

Obsession

If you could teach a one-hour class on anything, what would it be?

It would be about taking part, acting on the current issues we’re dealing with, being passionate about something bigger than our personal everyday life. This is what I’m trying to remember and practice myself, although not always very successfully.

What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?

Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Womenwas absolutely fascinating. Natalia Meshchaninova's Core of the Worldwas a magical film that has popped into my mind for quite a few times after seeing it.

What is the most played song in your music library?

This has to be a Nick Cave song, most likely Brompton Oratoryfrom the album TheBoatman’s Call. I love to sing this alone while developing the films, and I’m a terrible singer.

How do you take your coffee?

I’m not too picky with my coffee. Usually with oat milk, or milk, if there’s no milk, then black.