Estonian composer Arvo Pärt describes his music as a way to question the duality of humanity’s sins and forgiveness. I grew up during Soviet Union so I am sympathetic to this idea and therefore interested in the landscape and people that have been ignored or wronged in some way, but despite of it continue to persevere.

I photograph subtle signs of trauma and recovery in the American South and in Estonia. Photographing in a diaristic manner, I’m drawn to banal and insignificant sites in both countries, such as shipping ports, rooftops, mounds of concrete and basement boxing clubs.

As I feel at home both in America and in Estonia I want to create my own photographic history and a new fictional link, which combines these two disparate regions. I’m interested in the less sensationalized settings as the two places are recuperating from either a political occupation, Civil War or natural disaster. So I go on generating photographic drama while I take a picture of a tree at night time by the Mississippi delta which hurricane Katrina had devastated a decade before, or point a harsh flash at the face of a Russian boxer after losing a match. Following many years of photographing and organizing images from Estonia and America into two separate projects I wonder why does it really matter where the pictures are taken? Since last year I’ve been combining all my work into one series disregarding the geographical location and challenging my own preconceived ideas about Eastern Europe and the South.