Plant Photography by Sanna Kannisto

Finish photographer Sanna Kannisto, who lives and works in Helsinki, really caught my eye this morning with her green photography. Mixing nature with culture, Sanna explores these two subjects in an artistic way, studying the methods, theories and concepts through which we approach nature in art and in science.

I was obviously attracted to this work through the compositions and tones, also the mix of nature and life has been something that I’ve admired for quite a long time. If you’ve a spare minute I would recommend reading her personal statement which absolutely blew me away and really explains what she does and why she does it.

One sentence that stood out was this, “For me photography is a medium, which in itself documents the transience of life”. So true in my eyes and is something I look for often, whether it be consciously or unconsciously. I’ve also placed another extract below which I think is really relevant and captures the essence of these photographs.

“One of my aims is to use irony and humour to investigate the concept of truth in photography and to ask how we actually want to view nature. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, during the course of cultural evolution, man changes a raw and unpalatable nature into one that is cooked and digestible. Photography can resemble a cooking process of sorts. The photographed objects are made intelligible by being photographed, and are incorporated into culture. In the same way as in science, art too is used to try to bring the world under control. The impossibility of this task is also linked with a certain absurdity that I have noticed in my pictures.”

www.sannakannisto.com

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