Pentti SammallahtiMe kaksi

“Inspired by the title of a poem by the Finnish writer Aaro Hellaakoski, Me Kaksi celebrates the chance encounter, the strange proximity, the presence in the world of two beings. Hellaakoski’s literary work exalts the experience of nature, a naturphilosophy inspired by German Romanticism that attempts to capture the unspeakable, the fragility of our relationship to the world. the fragility of our relationship to the world. This attempt to capture fleeting moments can be found in the images of Pentti Sammallahti.

The idea of the duo, the couple, and accomplices of all kinds appears repeatedly in the photographer’s work. Whether they are lovers, friends, children, passers-by, travellers, neighbours, but also a man and his dog, two birds… Sammallahti’s images capture singular moments, they tell the story of attachment, tenderness, the emotional bond. Looking back on more than forty years of peregrinations, the photographs in this book are so many little sketches: they materialize the experience of duality. Often immersed in majestic nature, from the Irish moors to the Mongolian steppes, children, women, men and animals look at each other, accompany each other, embrace each other, walk side by side: being in the world becomes obvious. Like a waking dream, these images offer a sharp perception of reality. In Sammallahti’s work, nature is experienced as an aesthetic experience, its evocative power giving the images a sense of wonder. Ephemeral moments captured with poetry, Kaksi’s images can be understood as haikus, they celebrate the evanescence of things, fragments of encounters, unexpected, fortuitous, exceptional intimacy but also sometimes of a powerful evidence. They also tell of the universality of the affective link, the “being-in-the-world” together.”