Pentti Sammallahti – Des Oiseaux

Atelier EXB – 2020

Second edition, Hardcover, 20,5 x 26 cm, 120 pages, 66 B&W photographs

The travelling photography legend Pentti Sammallahti captures the myste­ries of nature on his travels and among these, the world of birds. Coastlines, swamps, parks, endless plains, forest clearings, snowy landscapes… In these isolated areas, birds slyly reveal their pres­ence.  Like visual tales, his B&W photographs attest to his extraordinary eye for detail, to light that sculpts spaces,  to silent expanses in which a human or animal presence suddenly appears. The experience of the image is twofold: beyond its narrative virtuosity, his use of a two-colour process, with immaculate whites (as in the plumage of his swans or pink flamingos) confronted with deep blacks, creates a play of textures and powerfully renders a world in which birds play a unique role.