Unearthing a Soulmate

.

I know, it can be seen as obnoxious, me showing off as identifying myself with 

somebody I've just researched, a person, who's regarded as a brilliant figure in 

travel writing and authorship in general, not to mention his significant 

achievements in photography and translation.

However, the fact that I.K. Inha is a Finn, and hardly known in his home country, 

and totally unknown outside, gives me kind of a licence: I'm not comparing 

myself to a public figure as such.

But I am truly taken and moved by both his literary and especially photographic 

achievements, and the story of his troubled personal life, and will be researching 

further.

I'll be doing more posts about the things I find of interest about him later. This 

post, however, has images scanned from his book 'Kalevalan laulumailla' 

(published a hundred years ago in 1911) that I've been reading today. It's about 

rune singers in remote Eastern Finland, in Karelia of the old. They were 

immortalised in Kalevala, the national epic of Finland. My dad's family comes 

from Karelia. The set following them, the sepia images, are from his published 

set of booklets called 'The Pictorial Finland', which was published in 1896.

Into Konrad Inha, 1865-1930

Iivana Lesonen, photo by Inha, from Kalevalan Laulumailla.

Children from Uhtua, photo by Inha, from Kalevalan Laulumailla.

Poavila and Triihvo Jamanen, photo by Inha, from Kalevalan Laulumailla.

Ilja from Venehjärvi, photo by Inha, from Kalevalan Laulumailla.

Imatra Rapids, photo by Inha, from Pictorial Finland.

Punkaharju, photo by Inha, from Pictorial Finland.

Pitkälahti Station, photo by Inha, from Pictorial Finland.

Monrepos Park, Vyborg, photo by Inha, from Pictorial Finland.

Saimaa, photo by Inha, from Pictorial Finland.

Linnavuori, Sulkava, photo by Inha, from Pictorial Finland.