The politics of landscape depiction in the Finnish WWII army photographs

Summary

We will discuss the role of landscape photography in a conflict situation. The Finnish Information Company photographers took numerous pictures in East Karelia, present-day northwest Russia during WWII. East Karelia had been the focus of Finnish romantic nationalism long before World War II – it was the supposed birthplace of the Finnish tribe, a place of pure and primal Finnish culture. During the Continuation War Finnish troops occupied parts of East Karelia and the Information Company photographers were responsible for the Karelian image conveyed to the people at home. The Karelian landscape became an important tool for propaganda and the pictures an essential medium in the construction of a political ideal: the tribal home, authentic, beautiful and above all, Finnish. We will examine the memory and politics of Karelian landscape pictures and the Finnish army photographs as heritage of war.

Cite this Record

The politics of landscape depiction in the Finnish WWII army photographs. Tuuli S. Koponen, Timo Ylimaunu, Paul R. Mullins. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441708)

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Keywords

General
Landscape Memory Photographs

Geographic Keywords
Finland Western Europe

Temporal Keywords
20th Century

Spatial Coverage

min long: 19.648; min lat: 59.807 ; max long: 31.582; max lat: 70.089 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 105