AGAINST THE WALL (1995)

A giant photobook in both size and content, it documents ten years of photographs by Pekka Turunen from the wild and rural Finnish countryside. Since Finland joined the European Union, the majority of people who once lived uniquely from and on the land (or forest) have joined urban life. Where in 1945 three out of four Finns lived out in the countryside, by the time this book was published in 1995, only one in three people lived like they once did. The book title "Against the Wall" is a reference to the dwindling number of people who have chosen rural life against the masses. 

All the people Turunen photographed in this book live on Finland's eastern borders, he himself comes from a provincial city close to the Russian border. The people have built home-made furniture to sit in the houses they built with their own hands. Many soon-to-be derelict, but looking through the images you can't help but notice the humour and courage despite the hardships they display. Laughing with their backs against the wall. 

Title: Against The Wall
Publisher: Pohjoinen
Language: Finnish, English
Publication Date: 1995
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Edition
Edition Run: N/A
Size:  41 x 31 cm
Pages: 170