Being inspired of fairy tales, religious imagery, mythologies, musicals, past times, dreams and subconcious, I create images from the fantasy world. Although I want to see the world through filter that makes everything beautiful, clear and simple, I'm aware of the naïvety of that way of thinking, and I grief constantly because reality is something else. My cure for that is to create illusions.

I'm running a Neo-Victorian photography studio together with my husband Marco Melander. The studio, called Atelieri O. Haapala, is an art project combining photography, documentary, performance and fiction.

My personal project About Alice And The Rabbit tells a story of what really happened in Wonderland. The love story between Alice and the White Rabbit is based on an old sketchbook, and the origins of that sketchbook are confusingly mysterious. Which part is true and which is made up? Where is the line between truth and lies? And if there is a truth, whose truth is it? Does it really matter?

My technique varies from photography to painting, and I usually combine them both digitally.

Saara Salmi
Helsinki, Finland