Finnish photographer Esko Männikkö gained international acclaim in the mid s with the series Far North, depicting isolated bachelors living in the north of Finland. His visually dense photographs of everyday life are informed by a rigorously formal approach to the subject matter. Whether photographing animals, dilapidated buildings, or landscapes, Männikkö’s particular use of cropping and deeply saturated color palette demonstrates a strong affinity to painting. This connection is emphasized by his choice of frames, either found or handmade, and deliberately selected to complement the content of the photograph. Rather than creating fixed narratives, Männikkö’s work calls for a more open-ended, metaphoric mode of interpretation.
The series Harmony Sisters, begun in , comprises tightly cropped photographs of domestic and wild animals, including horses, birds, cows, dogs, and monkeys. Taken in a variety of
Esko Männikkö
The photographer Esko Männikkö creates images dealing with everyday life in the Finnish countryside and the dire circumstances of lonely men in the deep forests: a bearded man stands on the steps of his little house raising a bottle of liquor against the nocturnal sky; sturdy hunters attend to their equipment; a group of drunken bachelors gather for a pathetic Christmas party.
It may sound like a parody of how people in other parts of the world picture Nordic existence: solitary, gloomy and introverted. Don't these photographs just confirm the most common prejudices about Finland? After encountering Männikkö's images in a number of different contexts, however, I have realised that they have more to offer. Some of the photographs have stuck vividly in my memory, and I often want to see them again: the old watchmaker wearing skiing-boots, stretched out nonchalantly on his bed; the man with the impressive moustache and fishing nets; the group of men with red Santa-caps and beer bottles. They are all, indeed, very Finnish; but they also represent ways of life on the margins of society that can be found in most parts of the world. Some of these images are very sad,
photo: Angel Gil
Born in Pudasjärvi, Finland | Lives and works in Oulu, Finland
The Finnish photographer Esko Männikkö takes us on a journey deep into the backwoods and abandoned villages of Finland’s forgotten outposts. Männikkö records his observations as a neutral witness, without judging what he sees. His compositions are so carefully structured as to recall the still life genre, albeit that he usually works at the mercy of the elements of nature. Time seems to have frozen in Männikkö´s photographs. Yet, his trees, deserted houses and lonesome bachelors posing in their wilderness cabins convey a sense of ephemerality in the fleeting moment captured on film.
Männikkö is a self-taught artist who was chosen Finland’s Young Artist of the Year in He has won numerous awards both in Finland and abroad, including the Ordonez-Falcon International Photography Award in and the Deutsche Börse photography Award in His work is found in multiple international collections, such as the MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Fondation Cartier
To say that Esko Männikkö’s photographs are about dilapidation and ruin is true, but also a bit misleading. It suggests a certain bleakness, when in fact Männikkö&#;s subjects are dilapidated in a riotous, effusive way. The mold on the hood of an abandoned car is an efflorescence of mossy blooms; the green peeling paint on a wall behind a tattered red chair is flaking off almost organically, like the room itself is shedding its skin. Time Flies, at Yancey Richardson Gallery through March 14, is less about decay than it is about nature’s ability to reclaim manmade things, to wrap them in its fertile embrace.
Things peel, tear, sink, erode, and rust in spectacular fashion and rich color in Männikkö&#;s photographs, which nevertheless maintain an almost studied formal symmetry. He frames his subjects, whether a close up of a weathered face carved in marble or a view of a collapsed room, with clear intent. The bowed remnant of a bit of blue drywall in one image of a caved-in room, ceiling sagging and beams askew, or the graffiti version of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring on a derelict brick wall, offer glimpses of beauty among the ruins.
Männikkö&#;s use
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