Mindscapes by Antero Takala

"Photographing the landscape is like portrait photography. In both, the essential thing is to capture the subject's personality. In a portrait, the eyes are an essential part of the personality. In landscape photography, the clouds are the eyes of the landscape. [...] This is not documentation of the landscape itself, but of my own mental landscape."

Mindscapes 1960 - 2010 is a retrospective view of the 50-year oeuvre of photographic artist Professor Antero Takala (b.1939). The hundred-plus photographs now being shown together for the first time form a black-and-white landscape study; a paean to Finnish nature, to northern light, to lake landscapes, and to Lapland. The exhibition also includes a series of portrait studies of Finnish stage actors from the 1960s.

Today we had a rainy day and decided to visit the Finnish Museum of Photography to see two photo exhibitions. The main show what we wanted to see was Antero Takala's b&w photos. We were very lucky to have the photographer on the spot telling us about his amazing work during 50 years of his work.

He still works using mainly film cameras and b&w film. Here you can have a look at some of his photos of the exhibition.