Timo Kelaranta

6.6.–28.7.2024

The images in my exhibition are in two parts, the Numeritos series and the Silent Lake series. I have been working on the Numeritos series since 2019, and the work on it will continue, I believe I will be shooting it for years to come. The Silent Lake series was completed in 1980/1986. I first photographed the surface of the lake, but the end results did not match my experience of the world. Later, years later, I broke up the negatives according to a certain idea, and in this way I created the black areas in the images - and a certain message about the encounter between image and world. At the time of the Silent Lake series, I realized that it was worth concentrating on the form of the image alone, not on the content at all. This became my way of working, a path I have stuck to.

I hope that through the dialogue between this recent and my slightly older series I can open up my aspirations as an image maker. I trained as a photographer and have worked as a photographic artist since the 1970s, but my visual language has always converged on graphics and painting, perhaps most of all serigraphy. In the case of the Numeritos series, the final image is a combination of shots taken at different times and treated in different ways. I no longer call my recent works photographs, as they lack the connection to time and place that is characteristic of photography. On the other hand, I dare not call myself a graphic artist, as I cannot draw.

The work still starts with traditional photography. I need scissors, paper and a camera, and of course natural light. I try to shoot for as long as it takes to get into as free a state of mind as possible. The work plan should be a flexible, unprogrammed framework, a mental image that becomes more precise as I work. The inspiration almost always comes from art, from other artists, their work or the way they work. I try to remember to be what I am, deep and shallow, careful and unconcerned. The best way to learn is by accident, when the habits you've learned fall by the wayside. It's as if you've half-accidentally expressed the wrong opinion, an impossible one. 

I have heard it said that an artist does his best work in his forties, but I daresay I have done my best work now that I am seventy. I guess I'm so slow to learn. I was in my thirties when I first really tried to make progress. I realized it was a matter of choice. At that time, my work was characterized by a huge ambition, a disease that fortunately can be overcome with time. For an older person, it is enough to be more or less healthy, and to be able to spend your days in the job of your choice. 

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Timo Kelaranta was born in 1951. He lives and works in Espoo. He graduated from the University of Art & Design Helsinki (now Aalto University – School of Arts, Design and Architecture) in 1975, where he has been teaching as a lector and professor throughout his career.