Milla Talassalo

3

The photography project, entitled 3, is a personal study of triplet sisterhood. Talassalo examines individuality and her own identity in relation to her sibling counterparts.

It is difficult to explain triplet sisterhood. The finest aspect is the phenomena of feeling, periodically, understood without words. For Talassalo, her sisters’ worries are her worries, and their joys reside in her as well.

From time to time the sisters felt frustrated when objectified and exoticsised by the gaze of “outsiders” who marvelled at them when they were children. Talassalo sensed that most people outside her household did not regard the sisters as individuals. This is what she also emphasises in the work by placing the same kind of images next to each other.

The theme of being an observer and observed intertwines with the experience of selfhood. The body of work is simultaneously intimate and distant. In many works, Talassalo addresses selfhood with self-portraits as well as with references to nature. She also contemplates thematics of invisibility — the core questions being: if alone, am I invisible? Who am I without my sisters?

Talassalo includes minimalistic images in the work and also makes use of the long exposure times creating poetically layered images, layers that are present in the sisterhood.

By interrogating personal recollections—nostalgia, childhood, adulthood, and the present—the body of work also reflects on the importance of family connections and lifelong relationships.

About the Artist

Artist Website

Milla Talassalo (b. 1981, Mänttä, Finland) is a photographer who resides and works in Helsinki, Finland. Currently she studies Visual Journalism, a Master’s level program at the University of Tampere. She is also working with a photobook relating to her project about triplet sisterhood.