My name is Tarja Trygg, I am a PhD. Student, and the designer and planner of this global art project of solargraphy. I work as a senior lecturer at the School of Art Education, and teach photography, at the University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland. Photography has fascinated me ever since my student days while working as a member of the Camera Society of the University (Ylioppilaskamerat is the oldest photography club for students in Helsinki) and as an assistant for the “Academic camera” exhibition at that time. During the trainee period for art teachers I also worked at the Finnish Museum of Photography.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH

Developing the teaching of photographic art constantly brings along with it new challenges. Many guidebooks on the techniques of photography are published, but only a few deal with photographic expression. Tapani Lundgren and I made a guidebook for schools and enthusiasts, called "KERRO VALOKUVIN" (Telling with Photographs), published by WSOY in 1984. We wanted to focus more on photographic expression and only extract the most essential and necessary information about the techniques.

My licentiate thesis was an art research titled "VALOKUVAN LUMO (The Fascination of Photograph). In the pragmatical frame of reference — Art As EXPERIENCE" (1999). My interest on how to transform invisible into visible in photography continues in my doctoral studies.

Philosopher PhD. Pentti Määttänen led graduate students of art universities into forming the AWE group (Artist, Work of Art, Experience), which focuses on studying Art and Art Education from a pragmatist viewpoint. In 2000 an AWE symposium and exhibition were organized, in Helsinki, together with the MAYDAY group of music education. The exhibition was organized in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma, and I partook with "Let’s make interpretations", an experimental program. In the working paper F19 of UIAH you can find texts on the pragmatist view in art. Among those texts there is also my paper "The Ambiguity of a Picture-The Fascination of a Photograph".

I discovered the fascination of photography in 2002, at the workshop PROFILE 2002 in Poland, where the subject was "Solarigrafie". This method was not very well known around the world at that time. After becoming mesmerized by solargraphy, I was overwhelmed with the method. Now it is the base of my doctoral research, "Solargraphy in the change of analogical and digital photography". At the spring days of Art teachers 2003 I gave a presentation based on solargraphy entitled "What kind of pictures are these?".

PRESS 

The true solargraphy boom started when Helsingin Sanomat published a full page article "Kevään kaaret esiin purkkikameralla" (Spring arches from a can camera) by Vuokko Rajala, an article can be found on the science and nature pages titled "With the long exposition of solargraphy, it is possible to create art from the cycles of the sun" 23.3.2004. Based on this interview Etelä-Suomen Sanomat (Newspaper) published their version on 4.4.2004. The Photo magazin REFOTO (Jun/2004) published three of my solargraphs in their article called Foto – Klasika: "Pinhole" Fotografija 2 GRADNJA JE ZABAVA, SNIMANJE ZADOVOLJSTVO, pages 68-69.

EXHIBITIONS

I have had two exhibitions of solargraphs taken with lensless pinhole cameras. The first one entitled "Solargraphy— the sun in camera obscura" in January 2005 during the science days Laterna Magica in Helsinki and the second one entitled "Follow The Sun" in Wellington, New Zealand, in the Fringe 05 Arts Festival.

COURSES

As visiting professors I have been with textile artist Maija Pellonpää-Forss to India (2003); at National Institute of Ahmedabad, in Argentina (2004); to the University of Buenos Aires; and to Spain (2005) at the University of Barcelona for organising open elective courses or workshops where students worked with solargaphy and applied it into textile printing. In Finland we have had summer courses, too.