Timo Kelaranta

Strange Love

“Photography was a strange love for me. It wasn’t a great passion at first. I don’t remember being astonished the first time I saw a print become visible in the red light of the laboratory. Photography had, as it were, crept into my consciousness and refused to leave. Now, I was on the verge of a serious relationship with it.”

This spring’s main exhibition focuses on photographic artist Timo Kelaranta’s (b. 1951) long involvement with photography. As a photographer Kelaranta is a poet, a master of the abstract image and of minimalism, for whom the most important thing in a picture is its form. The content of the picture is also generated by the form. The light moulds the surface, scale and space of the objects into something that was not there before. The material appears immaterial. The pictures also include words: the titles are essential parts of the works.

The exhibition contains works spanning Kelaranta’s entire career, plus totally new, recently completed photographs. To counterbalance the abstract images, also on display is a small number of portraits of his friends and family. Kelaranta is not showing his production in chronological order, or even arranged into distinct themes, rather the relative order of the works is determined by visual considerations. The moment of looking is more important than the moment of photographing.

The exhibition coincides with the publication of a book, Outo rakkaus / Strange love (Timo Kelaranta, 2012), and a small exhibition guide (Finnish Museum of Photography, 2012).

Visitors can hear the artist talk about his works (in Finnish) on the Museum’s Kännykkäguide (mobile phone guide).

Meet the Artist: Timo Kelaranta talks about his exhibition (in Finnish) at 18:00 on 8.2. and at 14:00 on 4.3 and 29.4. Museum entrance fee.

The artist’s work has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundation and FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange.