pentti Sammallahti

[danielbelenguer]

I recently bought this book and is amazing. I dind't know the photographer and it was a surprise. he's able to join landscape and the decisive moment and create fine art photographs beautifully composed.
All film and BW.
http://www.amazon.es/Aqu%C3%AD-tan-l...2699344&sr=8-1

[Rogrund]

I agree, Sammallahti is an excellent photographer. I remember some of his pictures from the 1980's, and I ordered this book last week!

Here's a video where you can see some of the work: http://vimeo.com/49311437

[Mablo]

Some more information here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesi...e-photographer

[danielbelenguer]

do you know which kind of cameras uses?, he has some extreme panoramic images

[Mablo]

Mr. Sammallahti walked us around his retrospective exhibition and talked a lot of his style and methods. Like many photographers he said cameras are not that important for him. He didn't want to say what particular brand of cameras he had been using but finally admitted that Rolleiflex is one of his favorites. I've heard from someone that for his panorama work he used Noblex.

Our own Rangefinderfreak probably knows a lot more about Mr. Sammallahti's gear.

[Rogrund]

Originally Posted by Mablo

Our own Rangefinderfreak probably knows a lot more about Mr. Sammallahti's gear.

Yes, hopefully he will chime in in this thread.

[Orbiter]

Thanks for posting, I hadn't seen his work before. He has a dry wit to go along with his visual poetry.

[Mablo]

Originally Posted by patrickjames

I can tell you with no exaggeration that he is one of the best printers I have ever seen. His prints are extraordinary.

Very true. He says himself he is much more into printing than photographing. He also said that when he's done with everything he wants to print he will burn all his negatives. The audience kind of laughed at the thought but I think he was serious about it. Just to be sure no one else will ever try to print from his negatives.

[mfogiel]

I've bought the book as well, and it is a real pleasure to look at this quality level photography as well as printing.
If this Rangefinderfreak has any close insight into his technique, I would be certainly interested to get a glimpse. It looks, like he is using mainly medium format cameras, exposing generously and using a yellow filter often.
What is amazing, is that if you start factoring in the exposure, filters, nice depth of field, etc, it turns out like he must be shooting a lot from a tripod. Yet, many of these photos look very spontaneous, and there are certainly several great decisive moments captured.

[Rangefinderfreak]

Hi, mablo, my very good friend asked me to bump in. Pentti Sammallahti is one of the Finnish photographers that succeeded to break early to the international ( mainly American) Photo gallery scene. Some of his present work he prints are in surprisingly small size. The way he works with his gallerists is that he uses the "Gene Smith practice" of putting down very much effort to produce a master print and the have a digital file made out of this. These digital files are sent to gallerist and produced by them to a gallery print in a very limited number.
mablo said about his equipment which is presently the best information. he has had different periods in his career. Now lives a slow life working on his portofolios.He is still a reasonably "young guy" for an "art photographer" so magnificent work can be expected from him still. I think any further info is not so important. I guess if you had a chance, you would not go to Gene Smith and ask: how do you manipulate the ferrocyanide brush, just enjoy the end product...

[Rangefinderfreak]

hehe, one more thing: he said sometimes that for example the image with the dog sitting and motorcycle. it required quite a supply of bits of sausage in his pocket to get the dog to stay in the spot he wanted...