A visual essay by Laura Piqué

What Silence Feels Like

Finland

A vision by Laura Piqué

From the plane, the seemingly blue hills drifted beneath me and slowly muted into a patterned texture of trees and snow. Time slows down with the cold, you move more slowly, you think differently. We decided we wanted to see the sunrise in the national park of Nuuksio, but we missed the six thirty bus. That's always the beginning of a story. Instead of seeing the sunrise in the national park, we walked over an hour across the mountain to intercept the next bus a few stations ahead. The first sun rays tinted our way out of the residential neighbourhood into a shortcut path over a mountain and I suddenly realised I had forgotten how silence felt.

At Nuuksi, the feeling of walking for hours and seeing no human or human trace felt surreal. Just the seemingly same trees and snow. We lost track of space. We ate by a fire with some strangers in a small iceland in a lake connected by a bridge. It seemed so obvious, but as well so primitive, that of the communal gathering around a fire to eat, that it felt familiar, atavistic and unpretentious.

Around us the water from the lake was completely frozen. We decided to cross the lake through the ice. Step by step, feet and mind recognised that water could be as solid as stone. The unease settled as we advanced through the lake. But the most bizarre feeling was the doubt that emerged as we got close to the invisible shore. Not knowing if we had reached the land, or if we were still above water.

Photography & Words by Laura Piqué

Edited by Laura Beneyto

Traveller/s
Laura Piqué

Laura Piqué

Photographer & Filmmaker
Laura Piqué works as a photographer for events, portraits, and other commercial work. She also works in the film industry mainly as a cinematographer or director. In her personal body of work she enjoys focussing on nature and landscapes from a intimate and suggestive style. In the filmmaker Kiarostami’s words “I am trying to understand how much can be made visible without showing”.
More Experiences

Keep exploring.

This story is over but you can read the next travel experience.