This page shows a set of three sample images from my almost complete pictorial collection of Finnish churches.
This unique collection includes Finnish churches as if seen at once (during 2015–2017). Also, and even more importantly, every church has been photographed both in broad overviews and details, based on the knowledge of each churches’ role in the history of Finnish church architecture.
The photographical trips in Finland demanded a lot of previous planning. How to plan the next church tour effectively? How to make sure that the churches would actually be open? How to compensate closed churches and exterior images taken in a heavy rain? Part of the questions could not be foreseen, of course; therefore a lot of driving back and forth was necessary.
So, I can only thank most kindly you all – the really numerous and helpful people in the parishes and Director Pekka Rehumäki in the Church Council of Finland – who have helped me to visit and photograph all these Finnish churches.
Good gears have been used and I will set up a special page for those interested in technical side of architectural photography. All the images were taken in raw format and are largely undeveloped so far.
The collection consists on average of 30–50 interior and exterior images of each Finnish church, raising a total of around 40 thousand images. It doesn’t seem realistic to try and develop all these images online with current resources.
I think, however, that a sufficiently versatile database with a smaller set of wide-angle images of each church might be feasible and interesting for congregations and teachers of religion, history and visual arts.
The collection could provide an opportunity for teachers and congregations to take their own church as a starting point and develop interesting questions concerning connections to other churches.
For example, different churches in the same area could be compared, as well as churches in Finland made by the same architect / builder or churches of the same style. – The results could be linked to wider historical issues.
The Kuvio database might serve as one model for this church application. I will gladly take into account any particular interests and comments.
I wish seeing you here later on!
Arto Kuorikoski
ThD, post-doc Researcher