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During the summer of 2012, during a long drive from North California to Los Angeles across the I-5 Freeway, the Finnish photographer Heikki Kaski impulsively decided to visit the small town of Tranquillity. Drawn by its appealing name, Kaski instead discovered a sweltering unfulfilled dream along an irrigation channel in the arid agrarian region of Fresno County. Nevertheless, this small community proved to possess an elusive power of attraction that is difficult to put into words. Kaski’s images show a certain beauty and serenity, in an overall atmosphere of missed opportunities and desolation. This is also exuded by the photograph Curved Tree. Due to the thick fog, just the corner house and empty swing are vaguely visible, but the eye is immediately drawn to a tree that appears to have been bent over by the wind, like reeds along a riverbank on a stormy day. All elements together form a mysterious, almost surrealist whole.

With his series Tranquillity, 2014, Heikki Kaski was part of the 2015 selection of Foam Talent.