The first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 put society into lockdown and forced cultural institutions to seek new ways of operating. The Museum of Photography offered Estonian photographers, both at home and abroad, the opportunity to participate in a project focused on capturing this strange period perceptually through the language of images, while engaging in a dialogue with a fellow photographer.

Annika Haas and Johanna Rannula, the initiators of the project:

“The aim was to capture the unique experience of the lockdown period and to describe the feelings and thoughts that emerged during the emergency situation. Authenticity was a key requirement, ensuring the novel situation was conveyed as genuinely as possible. Photographers had to create images in the here and now, either documenting reality or staging scenes, but without using any of their previous work. These wordless conversations pushed the photographers to look beyond themselves, to learn empathy, and to analyze their partner’s thoughts and visions, in order to respond with their own emotional visuals.”

Just as people vary in their ways of communicating, the process resulted in 65 highly distinct visual dialogues. Therefore, the entire project can be viewed as a unique socio-psychological experiment conducted through photography. For the participating artists, it taught depth of communication, empathy, and perception, as well as the ability to read their partner’s photographic metaphors. For the audience during the quarantine, it offered a shared experience. This visual game highlighted the importance of social relations, centered on notice, empathy, and inclusion, and demonstrated how attention shifted globally to the local level during isolation.

The exhibition brings these dialogues to the gallery walls through both complete series and fragments, while digital screens display the entirety of the “Isolation Dialogues” project. The exhibition is accompanied by a book of the same name, in which the participating artists have written down their retrospective thoughts on the process. These reflections provide a significant retrospective dimension and a perceptual documentation of both the project and the period experienced. The book was designed by Marje Eelma / Tuumik Stuudio.

The building hosting the exhibition—the Jaani Seegi pavilion in the heart of Tallinn—becomes the Museum of Photography’s new gallery space for temporary exhibitions. Jaani Seek, a medieval leprosarium where lepers were treated, is one of the oldest buildings in the capital. Thus, the venue offers a symbolic connection between history and the present day, where people have once again had to live in fear of disease.

The launch of the “Isolation Dialogues” book and exhibition marked the beginning of a new theme year at the Museum of Photography. While 2019 was dedicated to architectural photography, and 2020 along with part of 2021 focused on portrait photography, the spring of 2021 introduced the theme of documentary photography to the museum’s program. Notable highlights included a major retrospective exhibition and book on the work of Peeter Langovits, documentary project presentations by Elina Kostabi, Sanni Saarinen, Frederik Klanberg, and Jekaterina Solovjova, and, of course, an extensive educational program consisting of workshops, lectures, and artist talks exploring documentary photography.

The Museum of Photography’s project “Isolation Dialogues” was nominated for the Estonian Museum Annual Awards 2020 in the Friend of the Community category.

The Museum of Photography wishes to thank all supporters of the “Isolation Dialogues” project: the National Heritage Board, Hooandja and its donors, and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Additional information: Annika Haas , tel +372 56610694