I ON THE ROAD / WEATHER CAMERA SELF-PORTRAITS by Tatu Gustafsson, FW:Books

Fw:Books, 2021
9 × 8.3 in
400 pages
Softcover with perfect binding
First edition

“I was just graduated from Turku Arts Academy in 2012 and I was in a situation where I had to look back what I had done and decide if I wanted to continue to the same direction or start something different. I never felt like I was the one who has the ability to make well composed and beautiful pictures so I thought that I want to do something that is more conceptual. I had seen one of the weather camera pictures somewhere and I thought that those are really interesting but maybe I could add something into them.”

—Tatu Gustafsson

I on the Road – Weather Camera Self-portraits is the first book by Finnish artist Tatu Gustafsson and consists of 200 self-portraits taken with weather cameras. When Gustafsson started making self-portraits in 2012, he was looking for an alternative way of making photographs and wanted to question the issues of authorship associated with traditional photography.

Discovering that Finland’s traffic and weather cameras snap photos every 12 minutes, storing them online for 24 hours, Gustafsson made a journey across the country, positioning himself in front of these outdoor cameras. The results are haunting images that capture the essence of solitude. Utilizing over 700 roadside cameras scattered throughout Finland, Gustafsson embraced the lack of control inherent in this process. Spending a week each month living in his car, he traversed the nation, becoming a ghostly presence amidst the tranquil landscapes captured by the automated cameras.