Tapio Heikkilä: Fårö

Tapio Heikkilä spent a month on the island of Fårö in the middle of the Baltic Sea, north of Gotland, Sweden. He had been accepted for an artist residency at the long-time home base of film director Ingmar Bergman.

During his stay, Tapio Heikkilä systematically documented the island of Fårö through photography, applying his method of “Visual Landscape Monitoring”. For this purpose, he selected 54 photographic locations in advance, from which he took photographs facing the four cardinal directions (NESW), as well as two additional directions of his own choosing. The first chapter of the book presents the results of this documentation.

His accommodation was close to the sea, at the edge of a coastal bluff. From there, Tapio Heikkilä photographed the Baltic Sea opening out towards the east over the course of a month, capturing it in different weather conditions and under varying light. The second chapter shows what the sea looked like.

Alongside photographing the land and sea, there was time for other pursuits. Heikkilä watched Bergman’s films, one of which stood out in particular: Persona, which the director filmed on Fårö. In the third chapter, Tapio Heikkilä traces Bergman’s filming locations and the evocative landscapes that give them their significance.