Pentti Sammallahti

"Sammallahti has a special relation to man’s best friend and many of his photographs are extremely entertaining pictures of dogs engaged in living their doggie lives."

"...He was a teacher at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki before obtaining, in 1991, a grant from the Finnish state, which allowed him to give up teaching and concentrate entirely on art.

Sammallahti works within the classical black-and-white tradition of photography. . .His approach is influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson, from whose work he adopted the idea of the decisive moment, meaning the ability of photography to capture a unique moment in the flux of time, and the importance of harmony and balance in composition of a picture. . .As a photographic globetrotter, Sammallahti leaves the beaten track in order to photograph remote locations, places where people still live in close contact with nature. While maintaining a distance which is both respectful of his subjects and necessary to capture any given scene, Sammallahti succeeds in imbuing his photographs with a sense of lyrical intimacy. 

A great lover of nature, Sammallahti often combines the landscape with his portraits of people and animals. But he also pays tribute to nature’s beauty in remarkable, highly contemplative landscape photographs..."

Review by Greg Fallis

http://www.utata.org/salon/19575.php

Candace Dwan Gallery

http://www.candacedwan.com/#New_York/Exhibitions/Pentti_Sammallahti