Downtown Helsinki is relatively small and suitable to be visited on foot. And walking around Helsinki, it’s easy to stumble on a church – there are many. Therefore I’d decided to write this post dedicated to the churches I visited in Helsinki, which were duly documented with my Hasselblad 907x 100c with the XCD 4/28P lens.

What was new to me though, was the type of churches that we saw. I’m Catholic and from most countries I visited in the past, Catholic churches are normally the most prominent ones.

In Helsinki it’s a bit different. The first one we visited was the Uspenskin Cathedral, which is Orthodox. It was my first time visiting an Orthodox church.

As you can see, the church was dimly lit. I made sure not to overexpose to replicate the ambiance in the photos.

Low light is never a problem for this Hasselblad. I was using a wide angle lens – the XCD 4/28P, equivalent to 22mm field of view. Not sensitive to handheld movement.

And this was just to remind, again, that this camera has no IBIS and to me this is not a problem. I know I sound like a broken record. I come from the film days, we had no IBIS (except for some long focal lenses with OIS) and no high ISO like nowadays. Our limitations were much higher.

So yes, I would welcome IBIS in any camera including this one, but no IBIS no problem. Some photos here were shot at 1/10 of a second at ISO 1600. They came out sharp, noise free and perfectly usable.

Next.

On a different day, we were going somewhere when we found this neo-gothic church with a very strong presence. It’s called the St. John’s Church and it’s Lutheran.

Both churches above were not in our plans to visit, they just happened to be nearby when we were going somewhere else. As said, both are different from what I’m used to and this is also applicable to the orange brick façades. I’m more used to stone. This is why I like to travel, to see different things throughout the world.

Temppeliaukio Church

Now this last one really knocked my socks off.

People here in this side of the world where I live are ultra pragmatic. Whatever you discuss – from Architecture to, say, a pair of trousers – functionality and practicality will prevail over aesthetics 99% of the time. People like me who care about the appearance of things suffer big time.

So if I am to tell someone here that “Hey I have a very unique concept: to build a church inside a rock.” They will tell me to f*** off.

Yet this is Temppeliaukio Church: excavated and build inside a rock, on top of which there is a copper dome that feels like it’s floating with a skylight along its perimeter.

It follows a contemporary design. My son, who is a devout Catholic, is not a big fan of modern design churches. I have mix feelings about it. Being an Architect, I’m able to distinguish religious faith and the art of Architecture – and appreciate a well designed building, whether it is a church or something else.

But yes, being raised a Catholic in classically designed churches since my childhood, I admit I find some difficulty bringing out my religious emotions in a contemporary design church.

As you can see, all furniture and accessories follow a minimalistic design with no ornaments and decorative features.

What I found especially interesting was the combination of the blue and purple colours that are a unique feature giving it all some character, yet subtle and appropriate for a church.

Another unusual feature of this church is that it does not have a symmetrical layout plan. Observing these details gave me a lot of satisfaction and definitely made me feel it was worth the visit. I’d mentioned in my previous post that I’m an Architect and I still feel the passion whenever I visit well designed buildings.

Unfortunately, in my everyday life here in Macau I’m exposed to commercially and / or functionality oriented buildings that, notwithstanding the enormous budgets available, show everything but creativity and good taste.

I took this last photo below when we were about to leave. I realized that I shot many photos, but none of them captured the blue sky, which actually has a significant presence. So I set the exposure accordingly and the photo came out quite moody with the light painting the purple and blue chairs.

If you had come all the way here in this post, then thank you for reading it. There is actually more to come from Helsinki and my Hasselblad – street architecture, photos I took when strolling around – which I will save it for my next post.

Stay tuned!

* All photos shot with Hasselblad 907x 100c with XCD 4/28P lens. Post-processed to taste using Phocus 2 app in iOS.