AT 6.2- Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Arno Rafael Minkkinen was born in Helsinki Finland in 1945 and emigrated to the United States in 1957. He is currently a Professor of Arts at the University of Massachusetts. Minkkinen thinks of himself as a documentary photographer. He mainly shoot self portraits of himself posed in the most impossible positions. The way Minkkinen uses his own body in landscapes can really fool your eye to look impossible. But not only is his pictures what you see is what you get he only uses single exposures and does not do any manipulating to his images. One of the main elements that make his photos so remarkable is lighting. As I was trying to research more about his technical procedures of his process, I found that he does not like to reveal how his images are made. “I’ve learned not to give away the magic if that’s what’s there. But occasionally, it’s important to at least describe what’s going on so the viewer can say, ‘OK, that’s plausible.’”

To use my own body as a means of expressing our reationship to nature"

Arno Rafael Minkkinen

In this photograph I really like the lonely feeling you get from the water infront of her. You really don't think anything different of it until you notice that there are four sets of hands wrapped around her body. I also love the way the cliffs natural frame her body, the fact that she is nude in this picture really give you a feeling of freedom and openness as well.

I think that this photograph really draws your eye up from the bottoem of the picture to the top of the cliff. The angle that is used from photographing from the bottom and the way the arm moves up towards the top and the sun burst right at his hand give a great DOF. I really like the way his arm moves with the cliff as well. Even though the tree on the side I think in some ways can be distracting it also give you a sense that the pictures is taken from the ground.

In this Photograph I feel like he is scared by the way he is holding his head and I love that he captured this feeling with such a simple subject. Even without his face showing you really can feel a lot of emotion. But it's not only the emotion that I like about this picture is the curiosity around how his body is coming out of the wall. I also feel like the the square photo really made it that much better.

Arno Minkkinens work to me is more then just a picture. He captures what the eye doesn't think is possible and makes it possible through a single photograph.

My information was gather from
http://www.bu.edu/today/arts-entertainment/2008/02/27/arno-minkkinen-naked-cold-and-camera
http://www.arnorafaelminkkinen.org/