Pentti Sammallahti

I came across Pentti Sammallahti by chance while looking at another blog, lucky me! I hope this will help me next year. Really beautiful work. Its like the animals are in a world of their own unaware that the photographer is present.I wonder how many of these came to be by chance? A case of being in the right place at the right time. I hope to make work like this someday.

 

'For all that, Sammallahti's vision is also a lyrical one. He often captures humans and animals in worlds of their own, lost in reverie: dogs chase birds, birds cautiously approach humans or circle above them. Often, his camera captures a single figure in a dreamlike landscape: a man walking down a road in a silent, snow-covered world at dusk, his dog waiting, patient but alert, ahead of him. You can almost hear the crunch of snow underfoot. But what is most palpable is the silence of the surroundings. Looking at the photograph, you feel on the threshold of another, more mysterious world that is indeed here and far away.'

-the guardian (article)

 

Lonely Horse, England, 1998

 

 

Solovki, White Sea, Russia 1992

 Iceland, 1980

 

Solovki, White Sea, Russia, 1992

 

1999 Cilento, Italy (Dog and Tire Pile)

Varanasi, India, 1999

 

 

 

'In Sammallahti’s world, humanity is not the center of the universe. His images are fable-like, where animals act as guides. They enable us to pass into another dimension that our usual haste often leads us to ignore. Dogs are among his favorite subjects, and he often carries dried sardines in his pockets as a treat.

The tableaux are striking. A horse stands on a snowy, plowed field near a windmill under a white sky. Two pigeons seem to play seesaw on a tree branch lodged cross-wise on the trunk. Like a mysterious creature of the night, a frog emerges from a pond. Flamingos with twisted necks nest in Namibia’s high grasses. In a forest’s clearing, a white rabbit sits, as if ready to meet Alice. Under a tree’s horizontal branch, a dog stretches in a yoga-like pose, a perfect parallel to the branch. Another dog walks on a village’s snow-covered path, holding a purse in his mouth.

Sometimes the images are free of animal or human presence. In large panoramic pictures, branches of trees snake and swirl. Square seascapes confront water and horizon in different shades of grey. The sea stretches like a wrinkled elephant skin, or high waves break into a wall of milk-white foam.'

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2013/03/19/pentti-sammallahti-here-far-away/#ixzz2S93kMdgX