PHOTOGRAPHS NOT TAKEN

Photographs not taken 

Hanneriina Moisseinen (Finland)

Photographs Not Taken highlights the intergenerational chain from a female perspective. At the same time, the animation explores the invisible in history: shame, power relations and insecurity in 19th century Finland.

Director Statement

Photographs Not Taken is based on the lives of the photographer Julia Widgrén (1842-1917), her mother Maria Christina Annasdotter Widmark, and her mother's mother Anna Pehrsdotter Kinman. The work sheds light on Julia Widgrén's background as a second generation illegitimate child and the development of women's social status at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The animation also explores the invisible in history: shame, power relations and insecurity in 19th century Finland.The animation depicts real, or possible, events in the lives of its protagonists from the early days of photography. The work draws attention to the possibility of giving a dimension to oblivion and absence, to the representation of the invisible. It takes a stand on questions of the representation of information at the interfaces of memory and historiography. The themes of the work lead to the history of photography, the meaning of the image, femininity and the encounter between two times.

Director Biography - Hanneriina Moisseinen

Hanneriina Moisseinen is a graphic novel artist and animation director with a background in fine art. She has been awarded several times for her work. Moisseinen has directed three animated films and published five graphic novel books, which have been translated to various languages.