Kalle Kataila – Landscapes and Contemplations

kallekataila.com

“Kalle Kataila is a young Finnish photographer that developed in the artistic unity called “the school of Helsinki” which includes artists that express themselves through the language of video and photography. Kataila immortalizes suggestive natural landscapes that pertain to different geographic realities. After inheriting the notion of panorama from the Romantic movement, intended as nature to be admired and contemplated, he dedicated himself to immortalizing it thanks to an exemplary means, that of the photo camera.”

“The soft and diffused light of the first hours of the day give each shot a great sense of tranquillity and a pantheistic immersion even if it deals with a glacier or an expanse of snow as far as the eye can see. Naked and silent city horizons with the setting of the sun, remembering Cormac McCarthy, with cold and unsaturated colours, and always thanks to an immersive light never seem apocalyptic.
The spectacularity depicted or perhaps it is better to say “written with light” is a reflective mirror of the emotional experience of who is contemplating it. Photography has always had a double connotation, artistic as well as a documentary nature. From its beginning, attention was focused on the faithful restitution of the captured image, so as to permit reflection around the visible components, but the stylistic value was quickly discovered as well.”

“A beautiful sight is beautiful in and of itself and does not need disguises nor diadems to complete it or to render it more persuasive. What is certain is that the slice of “stolen reality” is filtered by the eye of who photographs it. And so from simple photography, one arrives to photographic works where the interpretation of the photographer, bringer of stories, identity, culture and character intervenes in a clear and recognizable way. Kataila’s work, Landscapes and Contemplations, shows solitary silhouettes whose gaze is fixed on boundless views that stand out in front of them.
The figure always occupies the central position within the composition resulting in being totally surrounded by the landscape, immersed in the view. The people have their backs to the observer. We look at them; they look in front of them. What exactly are they gazing at?”

continued on the artists’ website