I was super glad to see that so many media outlets shared my press release about the opening of the photography show “Toronto Estonian House: Last Act”. Way to go! I am super happy – most likely my most shared photography exhibition so far.
Have you seen it yet? If not, then it is up until the end of October, 30th to be exact. So you still have some time!
I am extremely proud to present that one of my best and largest shows, Toronto Estonian House: Last Act, is now presented at Tartu City Library, located at Kompanii 3/5. It is pleasantly open Monday through Friday, 10:00-20:00, Saturday, 10:00-16:00, closed on Sunday. So, you will have plenty of options to take a look.
What I hope the most for is to receive an email from a person who has visited the Estonian House in Toronto themselves. It would be so great to hear their impressions and perhaps to see photos they took of the building. Please share this post with your friends, as perhaps there is someone in Tartu who should see it and has a reason to email me.
Here are previous posts related to the Toronto Estonian House I have published before:
The stillness of the Toronto Estonian House – photo gallery vol. 2
Estonian House in Toronto is no more
Looking forward to your emails at kerly/at/kerlyilves.ee
or something like that. It is a mess, but please continue.
Yay! The first summer month is here! Yet the question remains, which summer it will be this time – the hot and dry or the cold and rainy one. While living in Estonia, it is always a gamble. I prefer something in between, as the hot sun or cold rainy days are not the best options to enjoy the summer.
The June photo is about a similar dilemma – which side of the coin will it be? You can look at the big picture or the small details – what will you choose? Most of the time, we have a choice, but with the weather, we don’t.
I guess it will be what it will be. We seem to talk too much about the weather anyway. Whatever we are given, I hope that I can see some bigger pictures and find myself lost in looking for the small details. After all, the smallest things matter the most, so keep looking!
I found a while back another photo I had taken, published online at www.tartu.ee
This post shared a press release from the Tartu City government, to which my photo was added as an illustration.
This winter has been extremely poor in snow. I am used to snow and cold temperatures and I do not mind it really, so I was excited to be back at home and enjoy the winter. So far I haven’t even gotten my skis out yet! So it left me with some extra time to discover what the dark February had to offer. I wandered around in the garden looking for something small to capture. It happened to be one happy evening when there was some snow coming down. I wasn’t aiming to capture the snowflakes, but the sharp ends of the tiny coniferous tree. I didn’t even think that the ends of the little needles have such strong ends. So there you go – again something new learned in this whole wide world!
It has been a while since I last wrote anything in here. I guess time flies and life changes. This post will replace the post that I have had up since June 2023. Today is the 1st of January, 2025. So much has happened and there is so much to share, so if you care, please check the previous posts on the blog section occasionally. I will keep adding new stuff and share some news. Even if they are old, perhaps someone will learn something new or experience some good photography.
After many years, I was back in my hometown, which has become unaffordable, but this is another subject. On New Year’s Eve, the best I know how to greet the new year is taking fireworks photos, especially when my connection with photography has gotten lost. Since the city of Tartu no longer offers fireworks, the private citizens took the matter into their own hands and created a wonderful light show for my short photography session.
As usual, there are the so-called must photos, and then there are those photos, which are actually more interesting and offer a greater viewing pleasure and more information than just a beautiful fireworks photo. So, please allow me to share three photos I chose to present here to give you an idea of what I mean.
First photo.
Even though this is not your average dark-sky and colourful fireworks photo (I cropped some of those as well), then I still consider it now of the must photos. It was quite an accident how this photo came to be. My camera was pointed in the city direction, from where I was hoping to capture the fireworks photos, but since that didn’t happen, then after fireworks started appearing by the canal, I just turned the tripod head around and started shooting.
Second photo.
This frame created me the most joy, as I have never seen fireworks sent like that into the water. Sure the arches create interesting elements, but I as an environment lover, started thinking about the pollution and how it would have affected the life of the water creatures. The people in the front add definitely more to this frame and bring more life to it.
Third photo.
This is my favourite shot. A photo which I guess has the most meaning. Imagine the beach which was so busy and full of people and fireworks, is now stranded, but you can see two boxes of fireworks cases on fire and a lone figure, admiring the faraway fireworks in solitude by a quiet canal. I was not sure before writing these lines, which photo I would put up on the front page, but I guess this is it.
Overall, I feel like I am back in business, so if you need some photos in Estonia, please drop me a line at kerly/at/kerlyilves.ee Enjoy the new year and make the best out of it!
I am blessed to be working at a job, which offers me always a variety of different tasks. Also surprises and challenges, so I never get bored. One interesting assignment is the house visits. There are many Estonians who fled from the World War to Canada, living all around the country. They get old or they pass, and the descendants are left with various Estonian memorabilia, which is looking for a new home.
It is wonderful to be welcomed to strangers’ homes to go through their items, which are oftentimes so beautifully arranged and displayed. It shows the owner’s appreciation of the items representing their home country and pride in being Estonian.
Pictured is a photo of Ene-Liis’ home, specifically her dining room. On its table, she had laid out all of the items she no longer wishes to keep, but which represent her travel to Canada from Estonia, gifts brought from there or items her mom used to make. In one word – history. Not just her or her family’s, but the history of Estonians who found a new home in Canada.
Museums are into preserving the people’s or countries’ heritage. So there are always items they are looking for, not only these but also the stories behind the items. VEMU got a nice collection of items and stories from Ene-Liis’ kind donation. These items will preserve the history and display the life of many people in the museum, which allow other people to get to know more about the Estonian diaspora in Canada.
In May 2022 I was happy to be able to present my large-format photos of the not-so-known rooms of the Toronto Estonian House. For many, they were nothing out of the ordinary, but for me and many others, they were and remained just the memories in our hearts, minds and on the photos. As of the 1st of November, 2022 the Toronto Estonian House no longer exists.
Here are the 10 other photos, which I was considering for the exhibition, but they didn’t make it to the final 10 nor they matched my idea of the exhibition. In these photos, you can still see life in the building. Though you may see no people, you can almost sense them being there, about to come up the stairs or open the doors.
The building has been fenced off, so you can see the front, but you can no longer visit the back from either side. The sad black billboard, which was in front of the building stated its name looms day and night emitting the sadness of many. If you look at the current sign close enough, you can see a line of blue in the top left corner and a line of white in the bottom right corner. So, it actually is the Estonian flag, just the sad, dark part is the biggest.
I have more photos for the last gallery of this long project. I was thinking of taking photos at the end when it was all empty, but I just couldn’t get to it mentally – it was just too much. Also, I was very tired of moving the items out of there, finding a new home, packing, recycling, etc.
Please come back at the latest n December, so I can show the rest of the photos of the Estonian House in Toronto.
