Even in this strangest of summers, photographer Markku Lahdesmaki was drawn home to Orivesi, Finland where, one afternoon, he found himself guided by the sound of steady clanging as he searched for its source in an otherwise dark and quiet forest just outside town. He discovered the source was an enormous hole in the ground in which men and women were working to extract the slate within a magnificent landscape.
Each summer, 20 or more hardworking men and women work mostly by hand, with tools and techniques that have been used for generations. Markku says, “While the sound brought me to the quarry, the grand, rugged scenery, the deep jagged walls and the uncomplicated beauty of people working hard and skillfully with their hands, made me stay.”
