Pekka Niittyvirta
Finnish artist Pekka Niittyvirta’s photographs draw from the chemical processes of film developing and developments in digital editing to create works that are both abstract and representational; they draw from the reality of the circumstance photographed while also moving “beyond” the camera into an imagined world. In response to this effect Niittyvirta says that “abstraction in photograph is fundamentally different comparing to that of painting. Photograph as an abstraction may actually be impossibility, since it always tied to its origins in the real world. I don’t consider these images as abstractions, but rather as information re-ordered in a way, which isn’t quite understandable through conventional methods of reading an image. For me the abstract-looking areas symbolize the visual noise and the identity vacuum of the contemporary society. Images also act as metaphors to the religion like faith in science and technology; belief of creating something beautiful and good, even if it might not always be the case.”(via iheartphotograph)
These works – from a series called Trinity – offer glimpses of familiar images but tests the photograph’s claims to reality; how much manipulation can a photo withstand before it becomes something else entirely?
See more of Niittyvirta’s work here.
