The Inbetween Land
Liina Salonen
Tatra Mountains, Poland, Summer 2020
 
"I find myself suspended between heaven and earth, in a state I’ve never known. Time ceases to exist. There is nothing in the world but me and the mountains—immense, silent, and breathless. My concerns fade into nothingness. Everything stands still. And in this stillness, I am more alive than at any other moment. I see with clarity. Or I see nothing at all. But these moments atop the mountain—these rare fragments of pure presence—have liberated me in ways I cannot explain."
 
There is something profound about walking through dense clouds on a mountain peak. The fog, impenetrable and heavy, strips away all but the immediate world beneath your feet. You are left with no reference but the path itself, a mere metre ahead. You must trust it entirely—trust that each step will lead you onward, even when nothing is visible.
 
At the summit of Rysy, Poland’s highest mountain, I sat amidst the fog, surrounded by a silence so profound that it seemed to swallow everything. I had anticipated a magnificent view, a panoramic expanse stretching into the distance. Instead, I was embraced by a thick shroud of clouds, their softness in stark contrast to the jagged peaks of the mountain. The clouds themselves—fleeting and delicate—clung to the rock faces, a momentary harmony between the fragile and the formidable. Occasionally, a brief opening in the mist offered a glimpse of the vastness beyond—a fleeting hint of how far the eye might reach on a clearer day. Yet, in that moment, the beauty was not in the visibility of distant lands, but in the quiet intimacy of the clouded world surrounding me.
 
The Inbetween Land is a meditation on this liminal space—where the boundaries between the earth and the sky dissolve, where time and place lose their meaning, and where the self is both lost and found in the vastness of nature. The series consists of eighteen black-and-white photographs, three of which were captured on film, taken during the summer of 2020 in the Tatra Mountains. These images speak to the fragility of existence and the quiet power of nature, offering a glimpse into a world suspended between realms—where clarity and obscurity coexist, and where the soul finds stillness in the absence of certainty.
 
Exhibited:
The Inbetween Land, Tampere Maja, 2021
Principle Photo of the Exhibition: Paus, 2021