In 1895 when Hugo Simberg became Axel Gallén's private pupil at Gallén's wilderness studio Kalela, he was still seeking his own orientation as an artist. Gallén already had an established position of power in the arts in Finland. In these years, Simberg discovered the main figures of his art; along with the figure of Death, his "poor devil" became the basic creature of his symbolist works, the artist's alter ego. Writing to his brother, Simberg mentioned that he wanted to paint all that made one cry within oneself.
Simberg developed into an accomplished graphic artist, for whom small photographs were were well suited. He immediately comprehended the importance of light and shade. Just as his paintings and graphics explored the boundaries of life and death, Simberg's photographs spanned the opposite poles of brightness and darkness, from white to black.
For Simberg, photography was more than just a means of preparing studies. His photographs can readily be seen as independent works on themes which the artist also explored in his graphics and paintings.
The most essential features of Simberg's art are to be found in the frescoes of St. John's Church in Tampere, Finland. The serpent, the keeper of good and evil knowledge, the godparent of the human condition, is on the ceiling above everything that goes on in the church. The nave is bounded by figures of boys carrying large wreaths, of which there are also oil paintings and photographs. The wreath-bearing boys have a link with Simberg's earlier photographs. "Guido, Fish Boy" sitting on a rock or Leo standing with his arm raised on a jetty belong to the same group of boys, reflecting growth, change, puberty and sexual identity.
