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oliver udy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Δ this is an ongoing spread of information and inspiration relating to my practice.... for more info go to www.oliverudy.co.uk .

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I'll be talking about Anthology of Rural Life at this Symposium, come along if you are in the area

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A few scenes from Inland Art, a fantastic spread of art installations across Redruth this weekend.

http://inlandartfestival.org

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Power

This American Life is without doubt one of the best things out there to listen to.... This weeks episode however really leaves an impact. The story of Carmen Segarra, who was employed to observe Goldman Sachs in 2012. The episode will unfortunately reinforce so many of the negative ideas we have about these big banks, and the way that those in power allow them to do what they want.... Have a listen.

 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/536/the-secret-recordings-of-carmen-segarra

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Inland

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I have some work in the Inland Art Festival next week.... It looks like a really exciting program, head along if you get a chance.

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Eli's first 5x4 photo.... me in the polytunnel.

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Website

Some new bits up on the website.... 

The evangelical people's school in Loimaa.

The man who fixes things....

Yards and Gardens...

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Another from Finland... trying out something inspired by Männikkö 

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Whilst in Finland, alongside the main project, I was shooting some other things too... as I am scanning images, I thought I'd put this little triptych together to see how things are beginning to look.... This relates (sort of) to the Foret work from France (here).... anyway, more to come. 

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Last evening in Finland... making the most of the 11.30 light.

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Photography Department at Palo Aalto.... Nice!

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A quick glimpse at some images I was making alongside the main project.... the different ways the Finns cultivate their gardens etc...

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Typical Finnish spot..

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Remaining Days...

The rest of the trip has been a bit busy, so visits to the blog have passed me by.... essentially we have been whizzing around the Loimaa Region visiting all sorts of interesting people and places, including a trip up to Rauma to visit a friend of Colin's. This was interesting, as in the town there is a world heritage site, consisting of the original wooden town centre. A really beautiful place. The best part, is that it is still used, and has not been turned into a twee visitors centre. 

After wrapping up all of the photography in the rural areas, we headed back to Helsinki for a couple of days, to visit some galleries and have a bit of a different photo excursion. This meant I could finally get back on a bike, and explore.... my preferred way of making work.

Here I am having a very pleasant ride through a nature reserve to the north of the city centre...

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Traditional Finnish Dance. - Day 5

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Day 5

Today has been very busy, and included the beginnings of a new project along with the ARL images.

We were based in the town of Loimaa today, and found a great old part of the town, with traditional houses and a  warehouse complex as backgrounds for the day's pictures, which included some of Finland's top Basketball players, choirs a policeman and more....

After that we drove up to Tampere, a lovely industrial city, to start a new project... more on that soon...

And then, as the evening continued, we headed back past Loimaa, into the forest to find a traditional dance hall. This was a magical experience, as we were not really sure how busy it would be... as we drove in through the trees, we were met with over a hundred cars, and wonderful Finnish Tango music drifting out from the hall... The atmosphere was great, with everyone dancing around in circles in the hall, or having a hotdog and beer outside.

We made a few pictures on the edge of the lake and then had a hotdog ourselves once the light was to low.

A lovely evening.... here is a view from the drive home.

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Day 4

Today was busy with lots of driving around.... the first stop was to an amazing open farm with a fab older couple who run the place. 

There were all sorts of animals there, from a donkey/zebra, to hairy pigs...

We could have stayed there all day and chatted to the friendly sheep and rabbits, but then headed off to meet a man who was going to show us his summer house....

This was a really great experience, as although we have seen several of these cottages so far, we have not been in any. This was a typical Granny's Cottage according to the owner, and was beautifully simple inside... I immediately wanted a Granny's cottage.

After that, we headed over to a small farm with a young family.... I was reminded of the Burroughs and the images of Walker Evans.

Tomorrow, we base ourselves at the market, where there should be some more interesting people to photograph....

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Day 3