Photographer of Interest - Selected by Editor: Editor's Choice: Pentti Samalldahti, Brilliantly Poetic Photography

I happened to be invited to an Art Gallery performance by the students of the Colburn School of Music in the spaces of the Peter Fetterman Gallery in the famed Bergamont Station, Santa Monica, California. I was so impressed, that it was evident that Pentti Samalldahti should be our "Photographer of the Week!"

"The gallery has one of the largest inventories of classic 20th Century photography in the country particularly in humanist photography. Diverse holdings include work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sebastião Salgado, Steve McCurry, Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Willy Ronis, André Kertesz, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lillian Bassman, Pentti Sammallahti, Stephen Wilkes and up and coming photographer Jeffrey Conley." ​

On the walls were works of the Finnish Photographer Pentti Samallahti and a book of his 50 years retrospective "Here Far Away" on a stand nearby, selling at $250. I was immediately mesmerized by the photographs and soon realized that the book with over 200 finely printed B&W photographs, was a bargain to anyone appreciating the finest of tonalities and poetic of images in B&W. The exhibition lasts until March 12th 2013, times and directions are here. The prints on display seemed to be about 8x10 or a little smaller and prices seemed to hover around $1,000 but I'll post the actual available sizes and prices when I obtain them.

This one picture caught my attention from the gallery in the website. It stood out from the other more pastoral pictures in it has two independent ongoing private moments, each one intimate and self-contained but working together so well in a unified scene.





Sammallahti is an expert craftsman with B&W. I recommend you to explore the pictures available for review here and post you own favorites and how they impress you.

I know you'll enjoy this week's selection! So explore and report back!

Asher

P.S. This picture is also part of, "Cathleen Nt. Houlihan", a 31.5x29.5cm portfolio of 30 B&W photographs from Ireland, 1978, in a soft cover binding, published in 1979. "Heavy masses of clouds hang over the landscape. People and their dwellings are one with their terrain."

Several more of my picks:



It could very well be that the photographer has particular titles to his photographs, but it does seem, right now, that they are labelled just by file name and the location. I'll update any new findings on titles.

Looking forward to your Sammallahti favorites or stories!

Asher

Asher, thank you for this. Simply a treat for sore eyes!!

And the one posted, Ireland 1978, is just masterful. Photography as it should be. IMHO, of course.

Thanks again for sharing this exhibit.

fahim mohammed said:

Asher, thank you for this. Simply a treat for sore eyes!!

And the one posted, Ireland 1978, is just masterful. Photography as it should be. IMHO, of course.

Thanks again for sharing this exhibit.

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Thanks Fahim for the support.

Here's more:

Asher Kelman said:

Thanks Fahim for the support.

Here's more:

Pentti Samalldahti: "Untitled"

Solovki White Sea

Russia

Gelatin Silver Print

Peter Fetterman Gallery​

.....

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Masterful!!
Amazing tonality. The power of B&W on display. The comp..a class act!

I am looking forwards to replies from Europe! What about classicists from Australia! This is the real Mccoy!

Asher

Asher, thank you for sharing this with us! Pentti Sammallahti is quite a star in Finland, being one the most internationally renowned photographers of our country. His Solovki images are absolutely fantastic, no other word for it.

These are masterfully delicate and sensitive. Their fame and renown is well-deserved, they do belong in a museum.

The last three that you posted don't explicitly mention being analogue prints like the first three - is that on purpose?

Dawid Loubser said:

These are masterfully delicate and sensitive. Their fame and renown is well-deserved, they do belong in a museum.

The last three that you posted don't explicitly mention being analogue prints like the first three - is that on purpose?

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Yes, David, this work is indeed so "masterly delicate and sensitive". I wonder how long he searches for such amazing scenes and then how many images he takes to yield one of this quality!

..and they're all silver gelatin prints. I corrected the posts to show that. Thanks for reporting the omission.

Asher

It is a wonderful book, with a unique feeling. It was featured as Book of the Year a few months ago on TheOnlinePhotographer. I was lucky and ordered it from Amazon very shortly after seeing the post, as it went out of stock everywhere in a few hours. When in print, it cost about $40, but is now listed at several resellers at $300 and up. The publisher has said that a second printing will be available later this year.

scott

scott kirkpatrick said:

It is a wonderful book, with a unique feeling. It was featured as Book of the Year a few months ago on TheOnlinePhotographer. I was lucky and ordered it from Amazon very shortly after seeing the post, as it went out of stock everywhere in a few hours. When in print, it cost about $40, but is now listed at several resellers at $300 and up. The publisher has said that a second printing will be available later this year.

scott

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Glad you stopped by! The book is still a bargain! His work now stands next to Edward Weston on my bookshelf.

Asher

Funny you mentioned Edward Weston, though in this reference, I would like to note how much Kim Weston's, "Anasazi Light" has the same ethereal feel in both composition and light.

I've been a fan of the entire Weston family's work for years, Brett and Cole moreso than Kim, but not long ago, Brett did a book on northern California woodland scenes, a lot of which were in misty or foggy conditions and the light captured in a similar manner to Pentti Samalldahti.

In regard to Pentti Samalldahti's work, I really like how he uses just a few darker images to balance a large array of lighter, and again for lack of a better descriptor, ethereal tonal values. There is very much an almost angelic feel to his images. In the first image you presented, "Croagh Patrick," I am reminded of a Leonard Cohen line from his song, "Suzanne."

"And the sun pours down like honey
On our, our lady of the harbor
She shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers"