Photos

This is one of my first pictures with my first own digital camera.
I also wanted to show something of the town where I was born and raised.

Tampere is called the Manchester of Scandinavia because it grew a lot in the 19th century. Heavy industry was built near the Tammerkoski rapid which was used as a source of energy.
Tammerkoski rapid goes through the city of Tampere which is located in a small isthmus between two big lakes.

In the beginning of 1990's Finland suffered a depression which is globally the biggest since the great depression in the United States in 1930's.

At that time also the industry in the middle of Tampere city centre had its final blow and more or less died completely, although it had already suffered before.

This shot is taken near the rapids where company named Tampella had all its production including locomotives, paper machines, arms and clothes.

The company suffered almost the whole 90's and were finally broken into pieces and sold to different directions.
At the same time Finland and Tampere started to prosper again and other type of industry like Nokia Telecommunications and Nokia Mobile Phones started to rise in the area.

The old Tampella plant was zoned as apartment building area still keeping a few elements from the old industry and the look and feeling of the red brick which was the material used in all the old industrial buildings in Tampere.

This shot also shows the remarkable summer all the nordic countries have.
This shot was taken at 05:20 in the night/morning. The sun goes down only for a few hours at this time of year and at this time its already quite high again.

This shot has the actual lighting condition at the time it was taken and hasn't been retouched in any other way than small crop and unsharp.

I think this picture also shows the true essence of Tampere in a new form still carrying a hint of the past.