The Descendants

The flight attempts of Finnish photographer Janne Lehtinen (*1970) with the strangest handmade apparatuses made people all over the world smile. Lehtinen’s ironic allusions to the old dream of flying, published by Hatje Cantz, was promptly awarded the German Photography Book Prize.

In his new, autobiographical project, Lehtinen takes us to Lehtiskylä, his hometown in the south of Finland, where people believe that all residents will eventually meet with a sad, usually sinister, and absolutely inevitable fate. The images and the accompanying memories—his sick uncle’s little bottles of pills, the corpse in the river, the last meal eaten by Veikko the old horse, a schoolmate’s accident—do not promise better things to come, yet there is a certain beauty to the “curse” of Lehtiskylä. This is a very personal, melancholy album, whose quiet images show Lehtinen and his cousin’s journey to the house and places of their childhood.

“ . . . a big, fat thank you to Finland.” (DE:BUG)