About My Work: Surfaces of Story and Memory

In my work, I photograph the quiet surfaces that carry our loudest stories. Weathered walls, worn thresholds, scratched railings, and sun-faded facades become more than backgrounds. They are the skin of our shared memory. Each crack, stain, and layer of paint is a trace of someone’s passing, a gesture of care or neglect, a fragment of a life once fully present and now only whispered through texture. By attending to these details, I try to reveal how our surroundings remember for us. Buildings, streets, and objects hold the imprints of touch, time, and imagination, and become a living archive of our environmental and emotional heritage.

Contemplative Photography and Body Archeology

Photographing surfaces begins with the body: touching, noticing, and slowly uncovering what time has left behind. The weather changes how a surface speaks, so here are four ways of seeing.

Sun

The color of an old wooden door. The softness of floorboards, warmed by a wall painted in red ocher, charged by the sun and bearing thousands of glances. Touch wood. Touch brick. Notice a crack. Take a step. Find what was hidden, now revealed.

Let your eyes and camera show what must be found and what has been left behind.

Rain

All the colors have changed, and the surfaces seem drawn from another world. Colors are muted, yet running water on glass creates beautiful reflections, patterns, and reshaped images. Bubbles inside old glass and uneven surfaces comfort the eye. Humans are not the only imperfectly formed beings; the environment’s skin also bears its marks. As my skin ages, so do the surfaces.

Wet

Suddenly, all the colors that wet stone holds reveal themselves, like tiny rainbows brought by water. The damp floor of an old stable holds darker tones than sun-dried walls. Dust has found shelter against the timber. Water changes how dust behaves. It no longer wants to rise on a sudden gust, and settles differently.

Here, horseshoes have sculpted the floor with love and time until it feels like the surface of a rare planet. Traces of work are everywhere: tool marks on wood, like signatures on white paper.

Cold

It’s so silent. Metal holds a muted power in cold weather, and touching it sends a chill. Rust flakes now have tiny companions: rust-colored ice crystals that sparkle and shimmer. The light has changed, and with it the mood. A story now sounds different.

The Shared Skin of Environmental Heritage

When I see, touch, and photograph surfaces and textures, it feels like touching the familiar skin of all beings, our shared environmental heritage. No material holds our memories and life stories as well as places that have been lived in: seasoned buildings and surfaces marked by time and presence.

Like a vinyl record, a surface can be read by touch, as if your finger were the needle. Observe, notice, touch, and reveal the music of the lived environment and the people who have been here. With my camera, I try to find and catch this music. I let the lens and the light be the needle, dancing across the topography of surfaces.

Preserved surroundings are our shared memory bank. We cannot lose them without losing a large part of ourselves.

Photography as Practice

As a photographer, I aim to capture what I can, share it, and remind viewers of this unique treasure. We all have favorite places, buildings, traces, homes, and secret childhood dens. We are deeply tied to every aspect of our environment.

Constructed, preserved, or found surfaces are part of our skin: the skin of environmental heritage. We should save what we can and protect what is already part of our shared story. Through surfaces, textures, and buildings, we build a lasting legacy and invite newcomers to join us.

This helps us remember that others came before us, that we are part of a larger story, and that there will be more when we’re gone.

The Journey: Piiru and Pispala

I started photographing the textures of built and preserved environments in the summer of 2019 at Piiru, the Tampere Region Built Heritage Center in Pispala, Finland, where I began an apprenticeship. I was immediately captivated by the preserved surfaces. The carefully renovated old mansion was, and still is, a treasure of environmental heritage.

I will continue my mission to notice and record, and to specialize as a “photographer of traces.” My aim is to tell the story of our shared skin of environmental heritage.

I appreciate beauty, art, and minute details, and I value the small things around us. As a photographer, I aim to notice, share, and remind us of the tiny yet meaningful traces in our environment and built surroundings. One of my specialties is capturing the essence of Pispala, where I live, a district full of unique buildings, people, and nature.

Visual Artist, Graphic Designer, and Performer

As a visual artist and graphic designer, I believe the right media and tools are essential for rich communication between messages, textures, visual elements, and viewers.

As an artist, I aim to awaken mental images, impressions, and memories through photography, graphic design, and visual art. Photographs give birth to tangible prints and images. These impressions become seeds for visual art, concepts, photographic experiments, and even Butoh dance performances.

Belonging to This Place, Right Now

As a fellow human being, I want to remind us of the importance of belonging to this place right now, regardless of what we have already lost or left behind. Our shared heritage can begin now. We are part of it.

So we must notice, appreciate, and touch, with all our senses and with gentleness.

—Osku Leinonen, 2020

Contemplative Self-Portraits and Landscape

I create contemplative self-portraits and small landscape images that blend movement, stillness, and time. My work explores the fragile beauty of existence and invites viewers into a space of reflection and presence.

The Philosophy Behind the Work

I work at the intersection of movement, stillness, and self-observation. My photographs do not aim to capture the decisive moment. They aim to dwell in a moment long enough for it to begin transforming. What appears in the images is rarely a single blink of an eye. It is time unfolding, curving back into itself, and leaving traces.

The work arises from a need to understand how I exist in the world: how I am seen, how I experience myself dissolving and re-forming, and how memory, perception, and presence intertwine. Photography becomes a quiet experiment. What happens if I don’t try to control time, but let it speak?

I am more interested in experience than in representation. A sharp image often answers too quickly. Blur, movement, and uncertainty keep the question open. Many of the works arise from existential curiosity: Am I fixed, or in constant motion? Where does the self begin, and where does it end?

Places of Threshold

I return again and again to similar places: lakeshores, fields, forests, gardens, and the threshold spaces between seasons. These are not dramatic landscapes but quiet, often overlooked ones. I am drawn to early winter, late summer, the first moments of morning, mist, and melting ice. These are moments when spaces overlap, like water that is almost solid, or light that is not yet fully awake.

These environments reflect the inner state I explore: transition without resolution. I usually work alone, early in the morning or late in the evening, when the world feels less observant and more honest.

Standing by a lake, in a field, beside a tree, or in the mist, I place my body within the same flow as wind, water, and light. The human figure is not dominant but porous. Long exposure allows a state of becoming rather than merely being, and it mirrors how memory works: layered, selective, incomplete. The images are not documents. They reflect what it feels like to exist in time.

The Body as Vessel

I use my own body because it is always available, and because it removes distance. I am both the observer and the observed. In front of the camera, I become a perceptual experiment. How much of me is needed for presence to be felt? At what point do I dissolve into gesture, light, or landscape?

Sometimes the figure is clear, and sometimes it nearly disappears. Both states are equally true. Masks, coats, and simple clothing are not costumes but elements that reduce individuality. They open the figure toward the archetypal: a memory, a witness, a wanderer, an echo.

Movement Painting

Movement is my primary tool. I add no painterly effects digitally, because the brushstrokes are made by time itself. During the exposure I move the camera, my body, or both. Sometimes the subject moves, and sometimes the world around the subject moves. Often it is unclear which is which, and that ambiguity is meaningful. I think of this as movement painting rather than photography.

I often use neutral density filters to slow time down even further. Some images are made with self-made filters: pieces of glass, plastic, or textured material placed in front of the lens. They are intentionally imperfect. They bring distortion, softness, and unpredictability into the image, much like memory.

The process is slow, deliberate, and embodied.

The Butoh Connection

Kazuo Ohno’s idea of dance as prayer, a slow listening to inner movement, resonates with how I work. Tatsumi Hijikata’s ankoku butoh, the dance of darkness, reminds us that the body carries history, shadows, and silent layers. In my own understanding, Butoh is embodied listening and radical presence. Movement emerges only when the performer stops presenting and lets being dissolve through forms. The same principle guides my camera: I do not construct the gesture; I allow it to arise.

Butoh’s principles are present in the images: slowness, microscopic movement, and following the inner impulse. The body does not perform the movement but becomes moved. Light turns into material. Time becomes a surface. The image records what passed through, not only what stood still.

Butoh-fu (fu means “notation”) is the poetic, image-based language that Hijikata developed to help dancers transform into other states of being. In my own practice, I let images transform into movement and stillness in the same way, and then let the camera hold what remains. For more on Butoh itself, see Butoh Art and Performances.

Influences and Meaning

My work is influenced by phenomenology, the Jungian idea of individuation, and an understanding of the self as emergent rather than fixed. I am interested in the space between the observer and the observed, the point where perception itself becomes the subject.

I also engage in a quiet dialogue with science and myth: entropy, energy, signal and noise, the drop and the ocean. The idea is that to understand space, one must dissolve into it. In the tradition of Butoh, the body can become earth, water, or wind, and boundaries blur. In the same way, in my images the self is not a fixed point but an event.

Photography becomes a practice of acceptance: of uncertainty, transience, and change.

Wall Art and Photography

My photos and wall art are available at oskuleinonenphotography.com (SmugMug). Explore high-resolution photos, download options, paper prints, desk art, canvases, edge prints, acrylic galleries, and wall art.

Contemplative Photography Essentials

Gear for Intentional Image-Making

Disclosure: As an Amazon influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases made through the links below. These recommendations reflect gear I genuinely use and trust in my practice. Thank you for supporting this work through your purchases. See the Amazon Affiliate Disclosure.

The Philosophy Behind the Selection

Carrying less forces intention. Every piece you bring must earn its weight, with no redundancy and no insurance policies. The best gear becomes invisible. You stop thinking about the equipment and start seeing again.

What follows is the toolkit I’ve developed over years of contemplative street photography, self-portraiture, and urban exploration. These products are not the only options. They have earned their place through actual use, in the moments when presence matters more than capability.

The Ricoh GR platform forms the core: a camera built for seeing, not for impressing. The accessories here are not afterthoughts. They extend a single vision that is intentional, minimal, and contemplative.

The Core Rig: Ricoh GR Cameras

Ricoh GR III

The Ricoh GR has no electronic viewfinder, so you compose every shot on the rear LCD screen. That forces presence. You can’t hide behind autofocus settings or shooting modes. The fixed 28mm lens removes decision fatigue. You have a frame. Use it intentionally. This is the camera that taught me that limitation creates clarity.

Ricoh GR IIIx Urban Edition

The Urban Edition’s 40mm focal length feels like a gentle shift in perspective: less wide, more intimate. The navy blue ring and metallic gray body carry a design intention that matches the philosophy, because aesthetic choices are never accidental. This camera is for photographers who see street scenes not as documentation but as portraits of urban moments. The crop is tighter and the presence more direct.

Ricoh GR IIIx HDF

The Highlight Diffusion Filter is built in, so that ethereal, softened quality is created in the camera. You don’t add it in post. You compose knowing the image will carry that contemplative softness from the moment you press the shutter. For self-portraits and intimate indoor work, HDF changes how you think about light and emotion in a frame.

Protecting the View

Ricoh GR III Screen Protector

The rear LCD is your only window to the frame, so protect it. A cracked screen means a silent camera. 9H tempered glass keeps your view clear and functional, almost invisibly.

Expanding Creative Possibilities: Adapters

Ricoh GA-1 Lens Adapter

The GA-1 opens two pathways: 49mm filters for optical creativity, and the GW-4 wide-angle conversion lens for a wider composition. It is a small ring that becomes essential. It is for the GR III only, a reminder that each camera generation has its own optical logic.

Haoge LAR-GR3X Adapter (GA-2 Alternative)

For GR IIIx and GR IIIx HDF users who want a third-party alternative to Ricoh’s GA-2. It fits the same 49mm filter ecosystem and the GW-4 wide conversion lens. The same creative freedom, by a different path.

Ricoh GA-3 Adapter (GR IV)

For those moving to the GR IV generation, this adapter brings 49mm filter compatibility and support for the GW-4 wide conversion lens. The camera detects the wide lens automatically and adjusts its cropping and stabilization, so the system thinks ahead of you.

Light Control and Atmosphere

Tiffen 49mm Black Pro-Mist 1/4 Filter

The 1/4 strength creates a noticeable softening, ideal for self-portraits where you want presence without harshness. It softens highlights, lowers contrast, and adds a dreamlike quality that feels contemplative without looking heavily filtered.

Tiffen 49mm Black Pro-Mist 1/8 Filter

More subtle than the 1/4: a whisper instead of a statement. Use it when you want atmosphere without obvious diffusion, for landscapes or street scenes where the softening should feel natural, not intentional. The Ricoh’s 28mm and 40mm lenses suit this gentleness.

B+W 49mm XS-Pro Digital Vario ND Filter

A variable ND filter lets you shoot wide open in bright light, giving a shallow depth of field, motion blur in water, and clouds that actually move across the frame. It slows time down, which is exactly what I want, and it is built for precise work without color shifts.

Physical Presence and Perspective

K&F Concept 90”/230cm Ultra High Camera Tripod

For self-portrait sessions and overhead compositions that demand a different perspective. At 230cm, it lets you place the camera above your subject and capture angles impossible handheld. The detachable monopod design gives flexibility for indoor work, ground-level angles, and architectural perspectives. When stability matters, it becomes invisible, and you just see the frame.

Peak Design Everyday Sling 3L

Hip carry that stays accessible without bulk. The Ricoh moves from bag to hand in one motion, and that responsiveness matters for capturing presence. Three liters is enough: camera, one adapter, two filters, a lens hood. Nothing extra. Nothing missing.

Building a Focused Practice

This collection began with a simple question: what enables contemplative image-making without adding noise?

Not the largest sensor. Not the most lenses. Not the gear that impresses other photographers.

Instead, tools that become transparent. Equipment that supports presence instead of demanding attention. A system built on the belief that creativity flourishes within constraints, not despite them.

You can start with the camera alone. Add the screen protector. Then, when you’re ready, an adapter opens new compositional possibilities, a filter adds atmosphere, and a tripod changes perspective. Each piece earns its place through use, not speculation.

The goal is not to own the collection. It is to see more clearly.

Complete Product Directory

• Ricoh GR III – core street and contemplative camera
• Ricoh GR IIIx Urban Edition – 40mm perspective, intimate framing
• Ricoh GR IIIx HDF – built-in diffusion for emotional work
• Screen Protector for Ricoh GR III – protect your LCD
• Ricoh GA-1 Adapter – for the GR III (filters and wide lens)
• Haoge LAR-GR3X Adapter – for the GR IIIx (GA-2 alternative)
• Ricoh GA-3 Adapter – for the GR IV
• Tiffen 49mm Black Pro-Mist 1/4 – strong diffusion for portraits
• Tiffen 49mm Black Pro-Mist 1/8 – subtle softening for any scene
• B+W 49mm XS-Pro Digital Vario ND – variable neutral density
• K&F Concept 90”/230cm Ultra High Tripod – overhead and low-angle perspectives
• Peak Design Everyday Sling 3L – minimal, accessible hip carry

This collection reflects the camera systems and techniques developed through years of contemplative practice. Each tool serves intention. Each choice supports presence.