Petri Anttonen

Petri Anttonen (born 1961) is a Helsinki-based photographer and visual culture researcher whose writings have been published in various professional journals. He has combined writing and photography in his extensive studies of the temporality of photography, including in his doctoral dissertation (2005) Ajan kosketus (The Caress of Time). He has also explored three-dimensional images, for example in his 2007 book Stereovalokuvan taika (The Magic of Stereo Photography).

“The union of words and images has always been central to my art research. The visual material and text together produce a cohesive whole. The serenity of the Saari Residence provides the ideal conditions for writing. The pleasant surroundings also provide inspiration for photography. Also, participating as an artist in discussions on photography emphasizes the significance of a work in progress. In previous work I’ve explored the relations between images and the ideas and circumstances underlying them. Now my focus has broadened to take account also of how those underlying elements themselves can be evaluated.

During my stay at the Saari Residence I wrote the background texts for a series of pictures. The starting motivation behind that work was to participate in an ongoing discussion about photography from an artistic perspective. Previously I’ve examined the relations between pictures and their contexts, now I intend to examine also the background influences on art.”