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I need a certain atmosphere, a certain mood, it gets me excited.

I often work dressed up in special outfits.

It inspires me when I'm developing a fantasy.

Leather is a living material. It's organic, not like plastic.

It's stimulating, it has an exciting smell and softness.

It gets better with age — like many other things.

Leather has lots of lifelike qualities that kind of rub off on its user.

I don't think leather is worn so much for practical reasons —

but more for the contact between leather and skin.

I sent some sample drawings to Physique Pictorial in the USA.

The editor was really enthusiastic.

To him, Finland was somewhere far away and exotic.

I had no idea what name to use.

I only knew that I couldn't use my own.

It bothered me, because I'm not an official representative of Finland.

It's a personal thing for me.

Those years that for most people are among the best in their lives —

years you spend studying and enjoying life, learning about yourself and the world.

For me, that time was during the war.

It was a harsh and brutal time —

but it pushed me into new fantasies and visions.

All of my contacts during those five years —

were related to uniforms in one way or other.

Civilians were suspect in some way.

There must be something wrong with them —

because they weren't accepted into the army.

We were full of naive patriotism.

Everybody had to join the army —

and fight for the holy cause, all sorts of nonsense.

Quality requirements also started creeping in —

like a well-built body in a tight-fitting uniform —

so they looked like real he-men.

It was more effective than a guy in a baggy uniform.

They were increasingly looking for an ideal.

That was of course on a different level in Germany.

When the war ended, things changed radically.

I felt rootless.

I had no traditional contact with my surroundings, no family.

I felt a tremendous need for something more sensitive —

more 'alive' in contrast to killing people in the war.

My parents gave me a pair of brown leather boots.

The first few days I wouldn't take them off, even in bed.

My mother made me take them off —

but when she left the room I put them on again.

I wore them all night and no doubt had pleasant dreams.

Already then I had this strong need for contact with leather and boots.

I was born in 1920, 70 years ago.

Living conditions have changed a lot since then, in one lifetime.

I was born in Kaarina in south-western Finland.

Both my parents were teachers.

We lived at the school, there was plenty of space.

But life was very primitive.

I was already at school —

when the first cars appeared in the village.

It became fashionable to have a car, and my father bought one too.

It was a Chevrolet, model 25, a cabriolet.

The roof didn't work. It wouldn't come down.

But to us it was a great automobile.

I studied music at the Sibelius Academy.

I also graduated from Advertising College.

I got a fabulous job at a big advertising agency.

There was a great shortage of graphic artists.

I started as a trainee drawer.

I was there for 15 years, and advanced rapidly.

When I first started all this —

my characters were exaggeratedly beautiful.

Long eyelashes and red cheeks.

To make them acceptable, I made them young and fresh.

This was not really my style —

but I did it to please other people.

Gradually the prettiness fell away and was replaced by masculinity —

which I personally felt was more interesting and appealing.

I was much influenced —

by American body-building magazines of the time —

that depicted their he-man types.

There were lots of famous guys —

who were not professional body-builders —

but did regular modeling jobs.

I copied them.

Usually with permission, sometimes even without.

A heavily built, well-trimmed body.

Short hair, friendly, sometimes over-friendly smile.

No frightening, nightmare types.

I primarily borrowed a strong, healthy type.

I found it attractive.

It did not pay very well.

But I had another job, so money was not so important.

But getting drawings published was rewarding to me.

I wanted to make them as natural as possible.

Sometimes there was a nose or waist or something —

that had to be corrected a little.

I added elements to existing photos and transferred them onto paper.

This automatically gave me a photorealistic approach.

It had a special effect, for me, at least.

I suddenly began seeing the figures as being almost alive —

not just outline caricatures.

This is a typical example of how I search for specific details.

I have used a photograph here.

This was done to order. First there was this posture —

then I elaborated it by drawing with exaggeration

Here we have the same technique.

A living model is transferred to a drawing.

This is a long mural, although it's made on canvas.

The client wanted a racing scene. In planning the composition —

I took this photo I had saved a couple of years earlier —

because I thought it was great.

So I used it as a model for one motorcyclist.

So, I either used an existing photo or took a photo of a given motif.

Nowadays I use living models as much as possible.

I like to choose them myself.

I take a photo of the model and draw from that.

It gives me a visual image of a living person —

and I recall their features and gestures when I draw the picture.

Normally I use pencil.

One picture takes about a week.

I'd say I've made over 3,000 pictures. Probably quite a lot more —

because that estimate was made almost 10 years ago.

Of course, I'm not as productive as I used to be —

but I must have done a few hundred since then.

In the early '60s people had got used to this type —

and started asking for more exaggeration.

I also had a need to pump up things that were important to me.

Another thing was that photography had advanced a lot technically.

It was possible to depict muscular super-types in photographs.

My problem was how to compete with authentic photographs.

How to show more than the camera could.

That led to a period of exaggeration and over-sized dimensions.

I wanted to make a kind of universal type.

A guy who is open to anything.

One reason was that I had met a lot of people —

who were very inhibited in their behavior and preferences.

I was quite disappointed with them.

Another reason was —

that I wanted to create an ideal Finnish type —

as a counterbalance to the American type.

Partly he was an embodiment of my own unfulfilled dreams.

I took all the properties that I myself did not have —

and put them into this comic figure.

By the '70s I already had close contacts —

with publishers of erotic pictures.

I was able to express myself in these pictures —

better than in campaigns for a big advertising agency.

In 1973 I left my regular job and focused on drawing.

Things had started to go as I had hoped.

All the years that I have worked for the American market —

have given my drawings a certain American look.

An Italian company sent a contact to Copenhagen.

Whenever a new issue came out, they had it in Italy a week later.

Setting up our own business gradually cut down piratism.

No matter how hard I try I can't make them appealing.

I don't have the right feeling for them.

If I try to copy a woman from a sex magazine —

there is always something, not negative but cold about it.

It lacks that feminine sensuality.

The first time I noticed this —

was when I saw some superb oil paintings —

by a Mexican painter called Quaintance.

But his figures never made proper eye contact.

There might be two figures close together —

but there was nothing connecting them.

One guy's arm may be on the other's shoulder —

but there was no sense of human contact.

This bothered me a lot. I wanted the eyes to show —

what they were feeling and wanted to say.

Readers usually knew only their native language.

So we couldn't use text to express what the figures were feeling.

We had to use the face and gestures and actions —

as a means of expression.

I need a certain atmosphere, a certain mood, it gets me excited.

I often work dressed up in special outfits.

It inspires me when I'm developing a fantasy.

The uniforms date further back.

They are from the period —

when I recognized myself and my own preferences —

namely the war years.

This urge to exaggerate was quite obvious —

in images used in propaganda.

A striking outfit was used —

to accentuate authority and masculinity.

Leather has lifelike qualities that kind of rub off on its user.

I don't think leather is worn so much for practical reasons —

but more for the contact between leather and skin.

It's like a substitute for a partner —

identification with another role.

In the early years, when these things were new to me —

leather was only worn by outdoor workers —

such as lumberjacks and truckdrivers.

Perhaps it has been more natural for me —

to develop my own fantasies and freedoms around this type of people.

They have become the basic types in my collection.

It's really an idea that is exciting to me personally.

To imagine that an unyielding wielder of power —

not necessarily an abuser —

turns out to be a soft, very human individual.

Unleashing the fantasies reverses the roles.

Take a policeman, for instance —

who abuses and exaggerates his power.

Then a group of 'troublemakers' comes along —

and subjects this power wielder to a situation —

where he loses his power.

Yet he enjoys, or has to enjoy the situation —

in a new, positive way.

In the early years homosexuality was banned —

in Finland and most other countries.

This resulted in feelings of guilt —

which prevented people from showing their true feelings.

Although I had to abide by these rules —

the situation was unnatural for me.

My preferences were genuine, I was born with them.

There was nothing learned, or sick, about them.

I wanted to give this group a boost, a justification —

if only in the form of pictures —

to say that they can express their feelings openly —

that smiling and feeling happy is permitted.

I wanted to correct the injustices of real life through fantasy.

This was a reflection of my own life.

I needed to experience a human relationship —

as a warm, homely constructive thing —

where pure sex is not the overriding element.

I also needed to show —

that a very masculine-looking guy can have tender feelings.

There is this contrast.

The outside world expects you —

to look like a statue and behave in a macho manner.

Yet, there is a living, feeling person inside.

There were some 'couple pictures' and also some individual poses —

where I think I captured the right way to express it.

My drawings are mainly aimed at individuals —

who may have experienced misunderstanding and oppression —

and feel that their own lives have gone wrong.

I want to give them encouragement.

I have never wanted to classify people.

In my own experience —

everyone has something of everything in them —

but in different proportions.

Nothing is totally alien to anyone.

I want to encourage this minority group —

to tell them not to give up —

to think positively about their act and their whole being.