Sandra Kantanen
Shadow images
In my new work I have photographed mainly landscapes, still lifes and plants. And an occasional portrait too. The title "Shadow images" refers to an old idea of Plato, that everything perceived is a shadow of the world. The objects or landscapes I photograph are of secondary importance. I work within certain traditions of image just to have a starting point for viewing. I try to state "visibility begins here". I have been greatly inspired by artists like Dawid, Timo Kelaranta and Hiroshi Sugimoto to name a few. They have all traced photography back to its own materiality. This is what interests me too.
Maybe by taking photographic expression to the edge of its own technical "boundaries", like experimenting with light, exposure time and mixing different media, I will end up telling something about photography itself.
In my earlier work I was occupied with working with the tradition of Chinese landscape painting, and developing a certain technique to combine painting and photography. But now I have found that it was a detour, however necessary, in finding my own language.
As an artist I see myself as kind of a philosopher. Everyday I ask myself questions like how is the world constructed and why. Photography is basically for me an attempt to construct a language for these questions.
The new works are photographed in China, Tibet, Finland and Japan. Entering these different cultures have given me insight into very different ways of perceiving an image.
Sandra Kantanen
