On the Independence Day of Finland Dec. 6, 2011 I was awarded this medal, First Class with golden cross, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland. Why I don't know, but I think it has to do with my nearly 40 years of designing large power transformers for the same employer...
I received the medal on Friday at a ceremony arranged by my employer to celebrate and honour employees working for the company for 20, 30, 40 and even 50 years, and all those who had received medals and diplomas. When the medal was attached to my jacket I got the idea of recreating the White City album cover, using a street of the city of Vasa, the real White City of Finland, as the background and myself as the centerpiece.
The city of Vasa became known as "The White City" during the Finnish Civil War in 1918 when the Finnish legal governement, the Senate, were evacuated out of Helsinki and moved to Vasa. From here the parts of Finland loyal to the governement aka "the Whites" administered all parts of Finland that were not being ruled by the communist rebels aka "the Reds" and plotted the scheme how to fight the Reds and stall the Bolshevik uprising and attempts to join Finland to the Soviet Union. Finland had declared its independency from Russia on December 6, 1917 in the turmoil after the abdication of Cszar Nicholas II and the October revolution. The Reds were defeated and the civil war ended May 5, 1918.
There are some nice interviews with Pete regarding the White City album and film on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKCJVPM5cAw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzT8NwdD31s&feature=related
The White City as Pete describes it in part one applies very much to the surroundings where Ingela and I had the photo session on Sunday. The place is called the Olympia Block, built in the late 1980's and 1990's and mostly inhabited by immigrants and students.
