Kalle Kataila

Kalle Kataila (Finland, 1978) studied photography at the School of Art and Design in Helsinki. He exhibits extensively and mostly in Europe. His work is included

in several public and private collections. Kataila belongs to the Helsinki School, in

which much attention is paid to the conceptual side of photography and to a work’s

thematic coherence. In Landscapes and Contemplations (2010) Kataila is inspired by the work of the 19th-century Romantic landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich. That same flight from mundane reality into nature or religion we can see in Kataila’s work when he photographs man against impressive backgrounds. He places the individual centrally in the shot, standing with his back to the viewer and looking straight ahead, often against an extensive cityscape or landscape. But what does Kataila want to tell us with these photos? Is he idealising what once was or focussing critically on the loss?