The Finnish photographer Santeri Tuori points his camera at the landscapes of Kökar, an island of the Åland Archipelago.
His work is known for his interest in the attributes of nature and their change through time.
His series of images titled "Forest" is based on the repeated representation of the same motives and locations spanning many years (since 2006, ongoing). By overlaying and combining individual negatives, he creates new images which perfectly illustrate the natural metamorphoses over time. The intertwining branches, overlapping twigs, the bifurcating lines and the tangled bends and curves are condensed through the interplay of light and shadow. This graphical web evokes an organic network of nerve paths, of delicate, pulsating veins. The images seem to be alive. Their pictorial quality goes beyond simple photographic representation. The idea of the "crucial moment" loses its power. Each moment is only part of the whole; only in aggregate do they create a new, complete artwork of extraordinary depth.
The definition of artistic creation as a process and the emphasis of the time factor can also be found in his work "Sky". Where the sky merely serves as a canvas for an endless variety of cloud formations, their movement and transformation can only be explained through the phenomenon of time.
Santeri Tuori's photographs seem like pictures from a parallel world, a universe which underlies the law of time while moving and existing outside of human paradigms. "Sky" serves as a revelation for the senses leaving much to the imagination, and at the same time a photographic work bearing philosophical traits.
Text: A. Meyer / Clervaux - cité de l'image
English translation: N. Linden
Exhibition view
Photos © CDI 2021