National identity is strongly based in language and mental images. Those mental images are intertwined into physical images, drawings, paintings and photographs. The representations of finnish landscape on paper and canvas have been as strong building blocks of finnishness as literature. Those images have burned in our minds not only the idea of our connection with nature but also certain landscapes. Those landscapes are recognized through slightest hints and shortest glimpses. Even if we hadn't seen them in real life. Aulanko. Olavinlinna. Koli. Saimaa. Archipelago sea. Punkaharju.

     National landscapes depict their subjects in a new way. The images are gentle and soft as the oldest memories. In their out of focus nature they offer us a limited but certainly strong enough hint for recognition.

     What we see when we see a landscape? They ask. What makes a landscape Finnish, or national? How does a photograph create reality? How do we remember, with what kinds of images?

     National landscapes also states a question of why has photograph been connected with a demand for and an obsession of sharpness throughout its history.