Girl in snow

Girl in snow

Growing up in the Nordic countries, HC Andersen's tales has been an integral part of my culture. And thus, I know, very well, the story of the match girl and her fate at christmas.

So when I saw this one statue — on Malmskillnadsgatan, of a girl sitting down, playing with something (obscured by the snow) — this one statue, covered in snow, and with a teeny-tiny tinsel ornament added, I knew I had to take a photo.

If you click through, you can see the entire sequence I took that day. There are a number of angles included. But I really like this one.

The girl is obviously cold — the snow isn't even melting. She's also pretty unperturbed by this fact, which adds a bit of surreality to the scene. But the sheer, unforgiving cold is what strikes me about the picture; and it's aided by the colours in play: white, and dull greyish browns. She looks away, not quite hiding from the camera, but really not inviting it either, though still, both the line of her snowclad arm and that of her gaze end up at that small tinsel ornament.