Enchanted by the quiet

Part of the Finnish sauna culture is rooted in a leisure hut, or as the Finns say, the Mökki. It is usually located deep in the forest or by a lake and is therefore far from any urban sphere. The Mökki can be a very charming and simple place to spend some quality time with a cold beer (or something stronger), surrounded by thousands of mosquitoes and wearing XXL clothes from the eighties.

A Mökki without a sauna is unthinkable and most of the time there is a separate sauna. Nowadays the Mökki can also be a very fancy and extended idea of a »cottage« with all the advantages and disadvantages of modern society. Who needs a messenger app while chopping wood and WIFI in the dry toilet?

However, in my opinion, the true essence of the refreshing Mökki life can only be experienced in a simple hut. The pictures in this series were taken in a Mökki owned by Petteri Rajanti and his family. We stayed there for three days and just listened to the silence, sweated quietly in the sauna, floated in the cool lake and then did it all again.

Surrounded by clean air and birch trees and with long conversations about the sounds of the forest and life in general, the Mökki sauna can really make you forget all your worries. That’s all it takes. Welcome to paradise!