the-dark-room | Petri Damstén

I stood on a couple of wooden blocks here. Even then I had to take most of the images without the mask since it was too much for my balance. I have only one cube so this image had to be made from several images anyway. You are hanging by a thread and trying not...

Photoart project mixing life-size models, 1:6 scale props and digital backgrounds. I was listening to my favourite band Sentenced and their album “The Cold White Light”. While listening I started thinking “Should I make images from the songs in my favourite album?”. Well, that was the original plan in February 2020. Now ideas have gone...

The Dark Room: The Story

For this image, I made a thin PVC pipe to look like a bigger pipe using paints and 3D printed bolt rings. The shit just keeps on coming. It’s poured on you day after day. Like an endless diarrhoea keeping you down on your knees.

Pour shit down your neck

Another image with 1:6 scale prop. This time XPS foam chair. Nails are real old nails and the helmet is a kitchen bowl. Conduits are a shower hose attached with a magnet to the bowl. I am starting to like this combination of 1:1 and 1:6 size props and how well they fit together. Those...

Haunting Thoughts

I got the inspiration for a guillotine from a drawing that I cannot find anymore. I sketched this idea into my book more than half a year ago. Guillotine fitted perfectly to the words I had in mind and to this series. It was also perfect build as a 1:6 model. It’s a combination of...

I have done these images by myself but for this image, I needed help and my wife wrapped the tape around me. My son is moving and didn’t need these plates anymore so I had the final use for them in this image. Once again, falling to pieces. Once again, trying to pick them up....

Handle with Care

The first image from the second shoot and tenth in the series. Still, a lot of ideas left. I have been releasing these once a week and if I could do that for half a year that would be a nice goal. Currently, I greatly enjoy working on a longer project which I haven’t done...

The Kiss of Death

I used this protective plastic already in previous pig/horror images. It looked so good that I included it in this breakthrough idea too. Trapped inside the agony. Trapped inside the misery. I am a prisoner of my mind and I want to break free.

For this image, I used the coffin that I made earlier from XPS foam. I think these scale models fit quite nicely to the images like this. Real size coffin would have been expensive and hard to store. The serenity of the coffin, so alluring. Endless darkness, so forgiving.

Waiting for the Coffin

For this image, I made the “mental wheel” in roughly 1:6 scale. It’s made from cardboard, wood, bamboo sticks, popsicle sticks, XPS foam and inkjet print. Then I painted it to look quite rustic. How are you gonna feel today? Like spinning the wheel, you never know. Probably anything good though.

My favourite band Sentenced has many songs about suicide. Contrary to what many might think they are empowering, not depressing. Since this whole series started from a Sentenced album, it could not be complete without an image about suicide. The end is nigh. The eternal pain will finally go away and everlasting peace will take...

Setups and edits from 2020 2nd Half.

Setups and edits from 2020 2nd Half

I bought this knife from Greece when I was twenty. It’s been in the drawer pretty much since. It finally found its place in this image. You find knives in your back, but don’t let them turn your heart to stone. It feels vulnerable but that is the real courage.

Image based on an old Japanese proverb about the three monkeys. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. — an old Japanese proverb

A short tutorial of how the room for the dark room series was made in photoshop.

Making the Room

For this image, I build a similar studio scene also in a 1:6 scale where I photographed the candle. I have several ideas where I’m gonna use it with different 1:6 scale objects. Burning the candle at both ends. You know it’s gonna backfire on you, but you still do it. You are never gonna...

Burning at both ends

I was listening to my favourite band Sentenced and their album “The Cold White Light”. While listening I started thinking “Should I make images from the songs in my favourite album?”. That was the original plan in February 2020. Now ideas have gone on their own way and I have over forty sketches in my...

I still have this old toilet seat that I used in the “Taking a Dump” series. It had some dirt on it for being outside for so long. Worked perfectly for this. Everything is shit, except piss. Shit goes in, shit comes out. Everything is shit, except piss.

Everything is Shit

I made this mask for a self-portrait series. Since I’m working in a home studio on my own I take the mask off constantly after a couple of frames (visibility in the mask is very limited as is expected). So wrapping the bandage was not an option for every shot. I managed to get the...

In Finnish language there is a saying “Kyrpä Otsassa” that means you are really pissed off. Literal translation for the saying is dick in the forehead. I’m pissed off. Really pissed off. Some things fall off but new things keep on coming. I’m in the endless loop of misery.

Pissed-off (NSFW)