2001 – ongoing
For the past twenty-five years, I have taken a single photograph each day, marking its surface with a personal or world-political event that occurred on that very day.
Silomäki followed a set of personally developed rules when photographing My Weather Diaries: one photo every day, no tripods, no lighting tricks, and nocconscious arrangement. The picture has to come about along with the rest of daily life, as mechanically as possible. The goal is to refrain from conscious content creation and to let the meaning of the images develop freely in time. The significance lies in the image’s relationship with time, if it is to manifest at all.
The photographs are accompanied by writings on subjects ranging from contemporary global news to intimate, inner experiences. As the news cycle and his personal life intertwine, geographical distances lose their meaning. When the project began, the weather was not a politically charged issue. In our time, every atmospheric change is seen through the lens of the climate crisis.
2001 –2005
The archipelago of Pori, I am in love. Today there is an environmental conference in Bonn: The Kyoto Protocol is ready to be ratified.
Finlandia hall, three hours after the collapse of the World Trade Center.
Turku, the day that US began bombing Afghanistan.
Helsinki, the day that six million people around the world were demonstrating against the Iraqi War.
Today Anu asked me what I want from life in the future. I couldn’t answer.
The night between Christmas Day and Boxing Day in Kuivasjärvi. At the same time a tsunami is traveling toward the beaches in Southeast Asia.
2005 –2010
The economic downturn in Europe can be seen in the media, not in the streets.
Anniversary of the October Revolution.
A young man shot nine people today in Jokela school.
I wake up to a text message: ‘Michael Jackson has died’. I take a shower, eat breakfast and check the thermometer: Summer has arrived.
2010 –2015
Malmi. I am in the park with Anu and Leinu. It is the Arab Spring.
Warm July evening at Lake Kuivasjärvi.
A moment ago a Malaysian airline flight MH-17 was shot down in the East Ukraine.
My friend and I listened to 171 Eurovision song contest entries on a car trip from Opole to Budapest. ‘Poupee de cire, poupe’e de son’ by Serge Gainsbourg was playing in the background when this lonely elephant suddenly appeared in front of us in a mountain village in Slovakia.
2015 –2020
Veliky Novgorod on the day that Nelson Mandela died.
The # metoo is speading in social media.
Budapest! Trump and Putin are meeting today in Helsinki.
2020 –2025
I returned to Helsinki from the cottage after the news blackout. Three days earlier, Hamas had launched a massive attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets and sending fighters across the border. In response, Israel had launched extensive airstrikes in Gaza. I look up from my phone screen and stare out the window for a moment.
At a hotel in Turku. I woke up early in the morning to check the results of the United States presidential election.
