In the series ‘Chronos’ (2006–2007), also know as ‘The Day Series’, Niko Luoma developed his interest in multiple exposure, in reflection of space, and in time in analog photography. Each photograph in the series is an abstract image of the passing of time during one day.

When Luoma started to work with abstract content in 2006, his main questions were whether or not it is possible to truly create an abstract image through the analog photogaphy, and what is an abstract image? He was not only interested in visual abstraction by long exposure or soft focus, but was searching for what could be realised from inside the camera, as opposed to referring to the reality outside the camera.

“I photographed each line, one by one, on the same negative, using only light as material and the drawing as an instructional plan. In other words: I was building up my image through the lapping of one layer of light upon another, using the same negative over and over again. The idea was to take something very distinctive to photography, a snapshot and turn it into a spectacle that has no equivalent in the living world. At the end there was an abstract photograph of time, of one day,” Luoma describes his process.