Shadows, Reflections and all Sort of Thing #55, 2010
C-print, Diasec
125 x 100 cm
Edition of 6 + 2 AP

In his series entitled Shadows, reflections, and all that Sort of Thing, from 1991 to 2004, Puranen takes photographs of historical portrait paintings from unusual angles. As in his previous work, the starting point for the project was his interest in museums and archives. But instead of making a connection between the portrayed and a specific landscape, Puranen leaves the paintings in place on the museum walls and photographs them under unusual conditions. The resulting photographic portraits defy the accepted standards of a well-made photo. The daylight is reflected on the surface of the painting, overexposing certain parts of the image, obliterating others in darkness. The series questions the relationships between the portrait, the portrayed, and the photograph of the portrait, and how the employed mediums influence our perception of them as an "image".