”We do not believe in ghosts, nor in photographs. We believe in each other.”
Aki and Astrid Sinikoski’s photo series New Ghosts portrays the relationship between father and daughter and their attempts to understand life, change, and the passage of time.
Photos raise questions about identity, adulthood, childhood, life, and death— what kind of role models, ideals, and future scenarios do we create for each other?
As kids, our fears are often easy to name. We are afraid of monsters, ghosts, or, for example, a tree’s shadow reaching towards us behind the window. As we get older, our fears often get more abstract. The new amorphous anxieties create new unnamed phantoms, a sort of “new ghost” we can’t name yet.
By photographing their ghost studies, father and daughter have recognized that fears are often the mirror images of dreams. After familiarizing oneself with a ghost, one kind of tame the previously faceless creature and turn it into a gateway to one’s dreams.
Father and daughter have planned and made the photo series together as an artist duo since 2011. It will be published as a whole in 2058 when Aki turns 80 and Astrid 50. [Official Website]
About
Aki Sinikoski is a Finnish photographer and author working somewhere in the borderline between documentaries, contemporary art, and performative art. He is not looking for decisive moments but rather the stagnant feeling just after these moments.
Astrid Sinikoski is a junior high school student. She plays basketball, loves animals, and enjoys drawing. She has a joint punk and techno band with her father, Raidalliset Lapset (Engl. Striped Children). Admittedly, the band has never released anything other than punk, as neither has learned to play techno.