Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950, Finland) is a benchmark figure in contemporary Finnish photography. He began photographing at the age of 11 and by 1971 began to travel and exhibit extensively throughout the world. Sammallahti's travels across Europe, Scandinavia, Siberia, the far East and Africa. Sammallahti's photographs have a supernatural sense of a moment suspended in time, with the sensitivity and beauty of the world displayed through its animalistic existence. As a wanderer and master craftsman Sammallahti records the relationships he discovers between people and animals in the far-off places he visits. As a passionate seeker of the perfect mechanical printing method, his own innovative printing techniques lead to photographic prints that are as beautiful as objects as the images themselves.
“I believe and know there is a lot which connect everything on Earth and of course in this unity has nothing to do with money, status etc. But I'm not a devout Christian or a believer in general. When I photograph or print I hope there is sometimes something to do with that unity”
