Viewing Room

Thursday, 22 August 2024

Sandra Kantanen

Sandra Kantanen

Meadow 06, 2023
Pigment print
138 x 183 cm

Sandra Kantanen has been delving into the world of landscape photography for two decades. Her fascination with creating idealized, surreal scenery stems from the traditions of Asian landscape painting and how they depict nature. Her latest series, Meadows, depicts the abandoned spaces between homes in small European towns, where nature has been allowed to thrive undisturbed, transforming these untamed areas into a whimsical realm.

Aesthetically, she questions what we, as a culture, consider ideal.  In her works, Kantanen uses her painterly sense, diffused light and her ability to manipulate digital images. In processing, she sometimes leaves photographs as they were taken or manipulates them, stretching the pixels so much that appear to be as fluid as paint. Kantanen's photographs can best be described in her own words as "mindscapes."