Midsummer

Midsummer, 16 mm contact-printed cyanotype film, excerpt, color, sound, 16mm > digital scan, HD video, TRT 3min 2024.

Midsummer is a cyanotype photogram film, where the sunlight, along with plants, insects, and water, are all employed in the process of filmmaking. The landscape here is both material and collaborator, where its physicality is literally imprinted into the filmic surface. I began the production of the film during a month-long residency in Finland. My time in Finland coincided with Juhannus, the celebration of the longest day of the year in Finland, when the sun doesn’t set.

I came to Finland curious about its short summers, long days, and early mornings, as well as to experience Juhannus (Midsummer), the celebration of the longest day of the year, when the sun doesn’t set. Having lived in the southeast for several years, where the warm and sunny climate allows plants and insects to follow a slow, steady rhythm of growth and reproduction, I was struck by the intense speed with which nature moves through its cycles in Finland during its brief summer.

On my way to the lake, I would pass a patch of daffodils and watch as the largest blooms would explode in color, only to turn into puffballs within just a day or two. I noticed a similar pattern with insects—one day, dragonflies would swarm around our camp, mating with an urgency that seemed to reflect the fleeting nature of their lives. Just days later, their lifeless bodies covered the ground, their entire life cycle complete.

It was as if life itself was in a rush to make, build, move, as much as possible before the cold months returned. This speed of life—seemingly exaggerated, intense, and unfamiliar—fueled by the sun, inspired me to create a film that could evoke these processes through materiality. Using a sun-activated cyanotype process felt like a natural way to engage the sun as a direct collaborator in this exploration of nature's urgency.