Sanna Kannisto: Act of Flying

Limited-Edition Portfolio by Sanna Kannisto

“Kannisto tests photography’s ability to faithfully reproduce the tones of the tiny wings, even if the wing strokes and flight patterns are mapped against the invisible coordinates of a white space, which in turn offers the bird full attention. Studies of motion hold an important place in the history of photography as images reveal things which ordinary sight could not perceive. The starting point for their analysis is often the stopping of time, a negation of movement. Motion studies are sculptural—they tell us more about charged force and potential movement than about movement itself as a flowing and experienced event.”
—HARRI LAAKSO, catalogue of the Helsinki Photography Festival 2005

Since 1997, Finnish rising star Sanna Kannisto has spent several months per year living alongside biologists in the rainforests of Latin America. Adopting elements of her companions’ scientific methods, she developed her own form of visual research, extending her depictions of flora and fauna beyond the confines of the natural sciences. Breaking away from the conventions of nature photography, which typically presents specimens in isolation, devoid of context, Kannisto’s work addresses the acts of staging and image-making. With her gentle humor, she recognizes and utilizes the constraints of science and art alike, investigating the concept of truth in photography to challenge how we view and “know” the natural world. This portfolio coincides with her solo exhibition at the Aperture gallery and the Aperture publication of Kannisto’s first major monograph, Fieldwork.

Aperture is excited to introduce the work of this emerging artist to our collecting audience.

SANNA KANNISTO (Born in Hämeenlinna, Finland, 1974) studied photography at the Turku School of Art and Communication before completing her MA in Photography at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; and the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki. Kannisto is represented by the Gallery Taik, Berlin, and Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta. She lives in Helsinki.

>Visit Kannisto's website

>View "Sanna Kannisto on Fieldwork: Edited Excerpt"