The Galaxy After The Rain In The Gas Holes On The Asphalt
Whenever Yu Tanhawa Finds A Suitable Pool Of Gasoline After The Rain, He Stands On Top Of It, Lowers The Camera, And Records The Galaxies.
Finnish photographer Joha Tanova has taken an unusual collection of space photos. While these look like astronomical images of stars, galaxies, and nebulae, they are recorded with a camera pointing toward the earth (not the sky). Tanhwa captured the images by photographing gas pits he found in the asphalt parking lot. This creative photographer says:
I did not look up to take these photos but looked down. I just saw the movie “Don’t Look Up.” A few years ago, in Lapland, Finland, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, I managed to photograph the Dibiaski comet.
Lapland is a great place to take pictures of galaxies, nebulae, and other space objects because of its low light pollution. But I did not point my camera at the sky but the asphalt. It is not the space above our heads but below our feet. It is also in broad daylight.
With a long history in photography as a photojournalist and fine art photographer who has had more than ten solo exhibitions over the decades, The 62-year-old photographer lives in a small village in southern Finland. Yoha can also find photographs in the National Gallery of Finland and the Museum of Theological Art collection.
Yoha says he took the first photo of the collection on September 14, 2005, at 12:20 p.m. He says:
As I parked my car in Flemish Park in Lahti City to take some pictures for the newspaper, I noticed an oil spill on the asphalt next to my car. This gas hole was a bit like the northern aurora. I took a few photos and forgot everything. Months later, as I was editing my archive, I found that photo. After that, when I walked into the parking lots after the rain, I paid attention to these pits.
Since taking the first photo in 2005, Yoha has handled hundreds of more pictures for the project.
He says:
I found a small world under parked cars.
