Jorma Puranen's Imaginary Homecoming, created between 1991 and 1997, is deeply embedded in the historical and cultural landscape of Finnmarken in northern Norway. At the project's core are 19th-century archival portraits of the Sámi people, originally taken during Prince Roland Bonaparte's 1884 expedition. Puranen retrieved these photographs from archives in Paris and symbolically returned them to the northern landscapes as temporary translucent installations.
Methodologically innovative, Puranen's approach involved rephotographing archival glass negatives, producing transparent images, and staging ephemeral installations in historically resonant locations. By reintroducing the portraits to their geographic origins, Puranen’s work addresses the Sámi people's historical marginalization and cultural erasure. It engages deeply with themes of memory, identity, and the profound transformation of landscapes and communities over time.
Visually, the project employs black and white photography to bridge temporal distances, creating continuity between archival portraits and their present-day environmental contexts. The use of transparent materials like graphic film and Perspex allows these historical figures to interact visually with their surroundings, imparting an ethereal presence enhanced by natural light.
Exhibited widely—including presentations at the Finnish Museum of Photography, the Siida–Sámi Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum, and in the V&A’s Breathless! Photography and Time—Imaginary Homecoming was consolidated in the 1999 monograph Imaginary Homecoming / Kuvitteellinen kotiinpaluu. Works from the series entered major collections (V&A, Moderna Museet, MEP Paris, Stedelijk, Kiasma), and Puranen’s recognition—among them the PhotoFinlandia Prize (1992) and the Pro Finlandia Medal (2005)—secured the project’s standing in contemporary photographic practice.
