A Beautiful World: Part V: Pentti Sammallahti

PETER FETTERMAN

A BEAUTIFUL WORLD:PART

The power of photography lies in its ability to ignite emotions across barriers of language and culture. This selection of 120 unique and heartening photographs from the 20th century, compiled by pioneering collector and gallerist Peter Fetterman, offers an inspiring overview of the medium while paying homage to masters of the art, from the bizarre Boschian fantasies of Melvin Sokolsky to the haunting humanity of Ansel Adams’s family portraits, from Miho Kajioka’s interpretation of traditional Japanese aesthetics to the joyful everyday scenes of Evelyn Hofer; each photograph speaks of tranquillity, peace, and hope for the future. The Power of Photography by Peter Fetterman is available through the Peter Fetterman Gallery as well as through all good bookshops, worldwide. ISBN: 978-178884-122-1

The Power of Nature: A Beautiful World January 14th – April 1st 2023

PART V: PENTTI SAMMALLAHTI

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Pentti is one of my favorite human beings and surely one of the greatest living photographers.He adds another dimension to the word “humility”. I have never met a photographer so completely uninterested in fame or personal success, material or otherwise. He is totally devoted to his art and almost monk-like in the way he approaches it and conducts himself. He is the most holy, poetic photographer I know yet full of life and gentle humor which manifests itself in his sublime work.Like they say in the theater “tragedy is easy, comedy is hard”, he creates gems of such seemingly simple human, animal and natural moments which are so complex in their construction and the dedication and patience it takes to capture them. His skills in the darkroom which are equally formidable are unparalleled by anyone working today. He would be embarrassed if I called him a photographic “genius” but like Mozart or Bach or Beethoven, he surely is.

Pentti Sammallahti

Delhi, India (Flock of Birds), 1999 (Printed later)

Signed, & dated in pencil on recto Gelatin Silver Print Image - 6”x8”, Paper - 8”x10”, Matted - 11”x14” (2626847)

“I suddenly understood what nature was telling me. I understood that you do not take photographs, you receive them.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Pentti Sammallahti

Jurmo, Finland, 1973

Gelatin silver print 8 x 10 inches: signed and dated in pencil on recto (25654)

~ Pentti Sammallahti

In 1959, Pentti Sammallahti visited the famous “The Family of Man” exhibition at the Helsinki Hall with his father and announced that he knew what he wanted to do with his life: to be a photographer. And this simple prescient pronouncement proved to be so true and we have the results of his prodigious talent to enjoy.Pentti has created a trove of photographic gems like this one.

Pentti Sammallahti

County Kerry, Ireland (Two Horses and Dog), 1978

Gelatin Silver Print

9 1/2 x 12 inches. Image size 8 x 9 1/2 inches. Signed & dated in pencil on recto. (25753)

“I wait for photographs like a pointer dog. It is a question of luck and circumstance. I prefer the winter, the worse the weather the better the photograph will be.”

“I think small things are more beautiful.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

I must say I completely agree with our friend Pentti. Whenever I see giant prints I must say there is something that makes we want to run away and hide under a rock. I get a headache because I feel I am being beat over the head with a hammer and the image is screaming out at me, “Look how important I am!”I much prefer the subtlety when I hold a beautifully hand-crafted gem like this in my hand.

Pentti Sammallahti

Pyhäjärvi, Finland (Horse & Barn), 1982 Signed and dated in pencil on recto Gelatin silver print 8 x 10 inch sheet; 6 x 8 inch image (47839)

~ Pentti Sammallahti

I start to shiver just thinking about being in this location at this time of the year as I write these words in sunny California. But it is one of Pentti’s most wondrous images. A solitary man confronting the elements. It is on the cover of his long out of print brilliant book “Here Far Away”.

Pentti Sammallahti

Solovki, White Sea, Russia, (Man Walking Down Snow Covered Road), 1992

Signed and dated in pencil on recto Gelatin silver print Image - 6”x14.5”, Paper - 10”x16”, Matted - 13”x21” (2626698)

“It was minus 20 degrees Centigrade when I took this picture.The fog you see is actually ice fog, lots of tiny ice particles suspended in the air.”

Pentti Sammallahti

I think two significant events happened in the 20th Century that inspired many people to become seriously interested in photography. One was Steichen’s ground breaking exhibition “The Family of Man”. We must thank Pentti’s sensitive father for bringing his son to visit the exhibition. The second event was the publication of Henri Cartier Bresson’s seminal book “The Decisive Moment”, still the greatest photo book ever published.The irony here is that I first became aware of Pentti’s work when Henri included this image in the first exhibition at his new Fondation Cartier Bresson, which opened with the exhibition “My Hundred Favorite Photographs”. In 2003 a year before Henri passed away. Thank you Henri, Thank you Pentti . Two of my all time favorite people.

Pentti is a one-of-a-kind human being and photographer. I asked him recently to articulate his approach to photographing dogs in particular, though his body of remarkable work is so much more extensive than this subject. Like a kind of Dr. Dolittle with a true gift and love of animals he let me into some of his secrets which I share with you now.I don’t know anyone else in the world of Contemporary Photography that spreads so much joy and happiness through their work.

Pentti Sammallahti

Solovki, White Sea, Russia (Dog on motorbike), 1992 (Printed Later) Signed & dated in pencil on recto Gelatin silver print Image - 6.5”x14”, Paper - 10”x16”, Matted - 13”x21” (2626804)

“When I photograph people I try to be as unobtrusive as possible to keep their behavior authentic.With animals, especially with dogs, it’s different. They are more attentive and become suspicious of a stranger with a camera. So I always talk to them, telling them calmly what I am doing and what are my wishes. I find then that they really become more trusting. Everywhere I always speak Finnish. Surprisingly often they understand my mother tongue.”

~

Pentti Sammallahti

Gotland, Sweden (Horse & Windmill), 1993/ Printed Later

Gelatin Silver Print

10 x 8 inches. Image size 6 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches. Signed and dated in pencil on recto. (25647)

Pentti is part of an endangered species, a traditional analogue darkroom specialist steeped in the tradition of individual, hand crafted printing.He is in a league of his own and was declared a National Artist by the Finnish Government, the equivalent of being given a “Genius Award.” The 20 year unprecedented stipend he was awarded gave him his freedom and independence to allow him to create a large part of his extraordinary body of work, a rare honor.This is no more evident than in his “Cilento” image, one of his major masterpieces. It is hard to find in the history of photography a more elegantly balanced arrangement of lines and surfaces centered by the shape of the dog who stands as a metaphor for the power of nature to transform and humble us in its beauty.

Pentti Sammallahti

Cilento, Italy, 1999 (Printed 2020) Signed, & dated in pencil on recto Gelatin Silver Print Image - 3.5”x8”, Paper - 6”x9.5”, Matted - 11”x14” (2626746)

“I am happiest when I retire to my tiny, dark cellar that is filled with chemical odors and the red light. I shake a developer tray and listen to the music of the flowing water.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Pentti Sammallahti

Pentti Sammallahti

Barun-Khemchik, Tuva, 1997

Signed and dated in pencil on recto. Titled and dated in pencil on verso.

Gelatin Silver Print

Image size: 5 1/2 x 14 5/8 inches; Paper size: 9 1/2 x 16 inches (PS14-7)

$ 2,500.00

“I want to work in peace. To be free to fail.” ~

Pentti is an exceptional artist who lives modestly and tends to travel alone without any fuss, assistants, or excess equipment. He roams the world at his own pace and just creates magic wherever he happens to be.

Pentti Sammallahti

Petrohan, Bulgaria (Three Snow Covered Trees), 2003 Gelatin Silver Print

8 x 10 inches paper size, 5 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches image size; Signed & numbered in pencil on recto (2626758)

“The world is so interesting and every place is worth to visit. Especially I love to photograph in remote, quiet places with vanishing things. When the world has changed, the photograph is left.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

~ Pentti Sammallahti

I’m not sure I would totally agree with Pentti on the percentage breakdown of what makes an image successful, but what is in no doubt is his technical expertise in making an analogue, hand crafted silver print glow. It is a dying craft.I know for a fact for every final print Pentti will finally approve and sign he would have destroyed 20 plus prints because they do not meet his exacting standards of print perfection. That is why each one is so special.

Pentti Sammallahti

Lake Numazawa, Fukushima, Japan, 2005, printed 2019 Signed and dated in pencil on recto Gelatin Silver print Image 8 x 9.5”, paper 9 x 12”, mat 16 x 20” (2626685)

“Ninety or even 99% of the time the negative is only the beginning. The darkroom is where the real magic happens”

Well this day was certainly not lost when Pentti turned his eye towards the Atlantic Ocean. It has such great power and atmosphere. One feels like one is there with him and we can experience the sounds of the waves as well.He then returns to his little darkroom to work his magic and produce yet another gem of a print.

Pentti Sammallahti

The Atlantic, Portugal, 2010 Signed and dated in pencil on recto Gelatin Silver Print Image - 8”x10”, Paper - 9”x12”, Matted - 16”x20” (PS18-129)

“I like the smell of the chemicals and I like the darkness and the red light and the noise of the flowing water. If I am not in the darkroom for one day I have a feeling the day is lost.”

~ Pentti Sammallahti

Hebrides, Finland, Italy, Russia, Wales, Nepal…… like a nomad, Pentti Sammallahti has traveled the world throughout the decades, finding everywhere the meaning-laden vistas that show how, in chance moments, symmetry and beauty are created. An ability to see form where one wouldn’t think it could be found. A consoling search for a unified, holistic sense of purpose that can only arise when you don’t look for it. And which shows that photography is one of the most translatable languages there are.”

It is always a special occasion when we are blessed to receive a new book from Pentti Sammallahti. We have just received his new book “Me Kaksi” which means “We Two”. The book celebrates the chance encounter, the strange closeness and the presence in the world of two beings.The idea of the duo, the couple of all kinds of accomplices appears repeatedly in his work taken over the last 50 plus years. Whether it is lovers, children, passers-by, travelers, neighbours but also a man and his dog, or two birds, these images tell of attachment, tenderness, the universality of the emotional bond of being in the world together.

Pentti Sammallahti

Seoul, Korea (Three Birds), 2016 Signed, & dated in pencil on recto Gelatin Silver Print Image - 6”x7”, Paper - 8”x10”, Matted - 11”x14” (2626764)

“The

~ Marie Lunquist, from the introduction to “Me Kaksi”

Many of Pentti’s best landscapes are just exquisite visuals haikus. Just like this one. One can stare at

Many of Pentti’s best landscapes are just exquisite visuals haikus. Just like this one. One can stare at it forever and just get lost in its beauty.

Pentti Sammallahti

Lake Inawashiro, Japan, 2005 Gelatin Silver Print

10 x 8 inches. Image size 7 1/2 x 6 inches. Signed and dated in pencil on recto. (PS19-268)

$ 1,600.00

Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness. To repel these unwanted guests ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows.

Today, whether you appreciate evergreens in your home or out in nature, they bring a beautiful and stoic presence to their surroundings.

Pentti Sammallahti Helsinki, Finland, 2016

Signed, & dated in pencil on recto Gelatin Silver Print Image - 6.5”x7.5”, Paper - 8”x10”, Matted - 11”x14” (PS18-77)

$ 1,600.00

Born in London, Peter Fetterman has been deeply involved in the medium of photography for over 40 years. Initially a filmmaker and collector, he set up his first gallery over 30 years ago in 1988. He was one of the pioneer tenants of Bergamot Station, the Santa Monica Center of the Arts when it first opened in 1994.

The gallery has one of the largest inventories of classic 20th Century photography in the country particularly in humanist photography. Diverse holdings include work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sebastião Salgado, Steve McCurry, Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Willy Ronis, André Kertesz, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lillian Bassman, Pentti Sammallahti, Sarah Moon and Jeffrey Conley.

Peter and his colleagues are committed to promoting the awareness and appreciation of the most powerful of the mediums in an intimate, user-friendly salon environment.

All images are © The Artist or their Estate, courtesy of Peter Fetterman Gallery, and may not be reproduced without express permission. All rights reserved.