In September 2006 I stayed at Villa San Michele, Capri, Italy and worked with the project “Beware of the light”, a quote from the book “The Story of San Michele” by Axel Munthe. When I first read the book, I reacted to the quote, because light is essential to a photographer. Axel Munthe wrote his book in 1929, and it was a huge success all over the world. The bright light on the island gradually ruined his eyes and he left Capri for good in 1943, he died 1949 at the age of 91. I wanted to make prints from a place Munthe loved so much, using the light that forced him to leave the island. I used Sunprint Paper, primary made for children to experiment with photograms. This paper consists of a sensitive material which darkens when it is exposed to sunlight. A similar photographic technique was common in the late 1900 century, at the time Munthe built Villa San Michele.
I made prints of the shadows in the garden of Villa San Michele, which today is a museum . The pictures are fragments from a place which is visited by thousands of tourists and for me represents part of the experience of the place.
Leena Jokela