{"id":33121,"date":"2020-06-01T15:49:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T12:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/?p=33121\/"},"modified":"2022-01-06T15:19:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T13:19:17","slug":"kalamaja-museums-exhibitionwhere-even-sunrays-will-not-reach-hans-soosaars-photo-series-of-the-meeger-living-quarters-of-north-tallinn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/expired\/kalamaja-museums-exhibitionwhere-even-sunrays-will-not-reach-hans-soosaars-photo-series-of-the-meeger-living-quarters-of-north-tallinn\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalamaja Museum\u2019s Exhibition\u00a0‘Where Even Sunrays Will Not Reach’ in the courtyard of museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hans Soosaar’s photo series of the meeger living quarters of North Tallinn
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘…where even sunrays will not research.’ This is how the photographer and photo journalist Hans Soosaar (1903\u20131961) described J\u00fcri’s home who lived on K\u00f6ie Street. As one of the first professional photo journalists in Estonia, Soosaar has been fortunate and unfortunate enough to capture life under various power regimes. His photos can be seen on the columns of Rahvaleht (The People’s Magazine), Noorte H\u00e4\u00e4l (the Young People’s Voice), the Revaler Zeitung, Rahva H\u00e4\u00e4l (the People’s Voice) and others. His photo lens has seen the colorful balls of the Estonia Theater, people executed at the Klooga Concentration Camp, but also the simple life in the residential areas during the first Republic of Estonia.<\/p>\n

At the end of the 1920s, Soosaar walked on the streets of Kalamaja and P\u00f5hja-Tallinn, and recorded the meeger living conditions of Tallinners.\u00a0It is not known why this photographer, who was just at the beginning of his career, decided to photograph the homes of those with low-income and the unemployed. [1].\u00a0Although the press at the time chose to remain silent on issues that would cast a shadow on the image of the young republic, Soosaar fortunately did not follow this tactics of disregard. [2]\n

On the exhibition You can see 10 photos of Soosaar’s apartment depictive photo series dating back to the 1920s. The photos come with detailed descriptions of the life of the inhabitants, the texts originating from the back of the photos. The exhibition was first seen on the streets of Kalamaja in the autumn 2019. Then the pictures were placed in front of the same houses that Soosaar captured over 90 years ago. Soosaar\u2019s photos, placed on the streets of their homes, brought people living in dreadful and humble conditions out of the shadows into the autumn light. Please take a moment from your day and have a look.<\/p>\n[1]\u00a0Liibek, T\u00f5nis 2014. Hans Soosaar – a photojournalist from P\u00e4ts’ time until Khrushchev’s\u00a0thaw.\u00a0\u2013 Estonian Press Photo, pages 1\u20137.<\/p>\n[2]\u00a0Linnap, Peeter 2010. On Estonian Photography 1900\u20131940.\u00a0– History of Estonian Art 1900\u20131940.\u00a0Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts.<\/p>\n

Curator: Laura Jamsja<\/p>\n

Consultants: Kristi Paatsi, Aap Tepper, Tuuli Silber<\/p>\n

Artist: Lilian Juhkam<\/p>\n

Photo sources: Estonian History Museum, Tallinn City Archives, Photo Museum<\/p>\n

The exhibition was part of the Tallinn Photo Month ’19 satellite program.<\/p>\n

Special thanks goes to:<\/strong>
\nrepresentatives of the Kalamaja Apartments Association, Sille Kima, Joel Leis, Indrek Hinrikus, Andres\u00a0Lall, Sirje\u00a0Pallo, Kadri Toomsalu, Tanel Verk, Anneli\u00a0Jalava, Jaak Juske.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kesk-Kalamaja Street 11-6: Edu<\/strong>
\u201cOld lady, lives in a dark, damp basement apartment.\u00a0Pays 250 marks\u00a0a month in rent.” (AM _ 16313: 7 F 5900: 7)<\/p><\/div>\n

Photo descriptions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. K\u00f6ie tn 1a: J\u00fcri
\n<\/strong>\u201cA\u00a0crooked old man, living in a totally dark basement where no\u00a0ray of light\u00a0can reach.\u00a0There\u2019s also no lamp, since there\u2019s no money to buy kerosene.\u00a0The relatives live in the\u00a0apartment\u00a0next door, but\u00a0they don’t take care of the grandfather.\u00a0The old man\u00a0gets a small monetary support from the city and\u00a0is on the list to a retirement home, but they don\u2019t have any rooms, and you cannot go to the home unless someone dies first and through that a room becomes available.\u00a0The old man\u00a0goes almost every\u00a0day to the city\u00a0welfare department to get news about the issue.” (AM _ 16313: 12 F 5900: 12)<\/p>\n

2. Girgensoni\/T\u00f6\u00f6stuse street 26-4: Anna
\n<\/strong>\u201cOld lady, doesn\u2019t have an apartement. The picture shows some kind of frame covered with a black linen shingle, also filling the place of a “couch\u201c, bed, dining table, etc., and is placed in the cold hallway next to the stairs, in front of the attic door.”
\n(Description TLA.1465.1.1142, Photo AM _ 16313: 3 F 5900 : 3)<\/p>\n

3. Wabriku \/ Factory 6-46: Madli
\n<\/strong>\u201cA middle-aged widow, incapacitated for work, has cancer. The child goes very day to\u00a0kindergarten where the child can get lunch.\u00a0Room is in a poor condition, in general.” (AM _ 16313: 9 F 5900: 9)<\/p>\n

4. Kesk-Kalamaja 11-6: Edu
\n<\/strong>\u201cOld lady, lives in a dark, damp basement apartment.\u00a0Pays 250 marks\u00a0a month in rent.” (AM _ 16313: 7 F 5900: 7)<\/p>\n

5. W\u00f5rgu\/V\u00f5rgu 25-8: Marie
\n<\/strong>“A dark apartement. It\u2019s a damp, smelly joint next to the laundry room.” (AM _ 16313: 8 F 5900: 8)<\/p>\n

6. K\u00fcti 15-5: 11-member family
\n<\/strong>\u201cThe family of 11 lives in a\u00a0tiny,\u00a0confined space.\u00a0The man goes to\u00a0work at the\u00a0Baltic\u00a0Cotton\u00a0Factory.\u00a0Two\u00a0older\u00a0kids are already\u00a0able\u00a0to work but because of no jobs available they don\u00b4t have work.” (TLA.1465.1.1149)<\/p>\n

7. Suur Batarei\/Suur-Patarei 10-8: Marie
\n<\/strong>\u201c80 years old.\u00a0Warm\u00a0apartment with a room and kitchen; is dirty.\u00a0Two\u00a0young men (co-tenants) living in the\u00a0kitchen.\u201d (TLA.1465.1.1148)<\/p>\n

8. Girgensoni\/T\u00f6\u00f6stuse 4-11: Marie
\n<\/strong>\u201c37 years old lady.\u00a0Got typhus at the age of 13 and as a result \u00a0became insane; the condition has remained the same for 24 years. Tends to get nasty during outbreaks of the illness, that’s why is separated by a net-cage.\u00a0Rocks her body violently, especially when influenced with nerv convulsions.” (TLA.1465.1.1156)<\/p>\n

9. W\u00e4ike Batarei \/ V\u00e4ike-Patarei 2-7 : J\u00fcri
\n<\/strong>\u201cLives in a dark basement apartement, has a broken leg, not able to work due to partial disability (75%). Married. As I overheard, have arguments. The woman goes to work, the man stays at home. Apartment rent 500 per month. Keep co-tenants.”
\n(AM _ 16313: 6 F 5900: 6)<\/p>\n

10. W\u00e4ike Batarei \/ V\u00e4ike-Patarei 11-7: a 9-member family
\n<\/strong>\u201cA family of 9 with 7 under-age children, in addition to that one\u00a0woman with a small child she breastfeeds,\u00a0living in a small\u00a0room with a floor area of\u00a0approx. 4 square fathoms (13,37 m2<\/sup>).\u00a0The man has occasional work.” (TLA.1465.1.1158)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hans Soosaar’s photo series of the meeger living quarters of North Tallinn ‘…where even sunrays will not research.’ This is how the photographer and photo journalist Hans Soosaar (1903\u20131961) described J\u00fcri’s home who lived on K\u00f6ie Street. As one of the first professional photo journalists in Estonia, Soosaar has been fortunate and unfortunate enough to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":33032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expired"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33121"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42720,"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33121\/revisions\/42720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linnamuuseum.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}