Ulla Jokisalo, Jorma Puranen, Pentti Sammallahti: The Beauty of Moments

How long does a moment last? The moments of taking a photograph and taking a loot at it are so different
in duration that when you compare them, it is like timing with a clock that has no hands. Photographs
simultaneously contain a variety of times: the objectively measured passage of time in seconds and minutes,
planetary time, which has something to do with the world of animals (and perhaps children), or the flowing
passage of time in personal experiences, among others. Photographs are moments from the past, yet viewed
in the present. Viewing photographs is thus a temporal back-and-forth movement between the past and the
present. The oldest photograph in the The Beauty of Moments exhibition is from 1970, and the latest ones are
from a few years ago.

Beauty is a concept that has long been considered problematic in contemporary art. After more than half a
century of suspicion, the discussion on the subject of beauty has once again gained a foothold in the visual
arts. However, beauty no longer has a single, universal meaning; instead, it has many interpretations, and it
is always personal. Along with the democratization of photography’s themes and values, no theme is more
valuable or beautiful than another in photography. Therefore, the beauty of a photograph must be discovered
elsewhere, somewhere in the relationships between its contents and the observations thereof. The beauty
of a photograph might be about enabling us to take a closer look at those moments, which are mercilessly
bypassesed by the normal passage of time. Beauty is also about exposure to the world and submission to it,
the expanded relationship between the self and the world.
The works of the three photographers in the The Beauty of Moments exhibition are recordings of these
encounters with the world. They express intimacy and provide understanding of the porousness of the human
boundaries.

Ulla Jokisalo (b. 1955) began her photography studies at the University of Art and Design in 1977 and had
her first solo exhibition in 1983, and she has worked as a freelance photographer and artist ever since. Jokisalo
regards herself as a storyteller who, like a flâneur, wanders through the flow of images, letting her imagination to be reflected on it.

Jorma Puranen (b. 1951) graduated from the University of Art and Design in 1978. It was already during his
studies that he began his long-term work in the northernmost regions of Lapland. He early adopted a museum- and archive-based approach to his work. The relationships between history, knowledge, landscape, and culture are central parts of his art.

Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950) began photographing at the beginning of the 1960s. He is one of the first Finnish
photographers to have achieved a lifelong career as a photographic artist. His photographs are labelled by
their warm humour and the enchantment of black-and-white photography. Sammallahti belongs to the most
internationally recognized Finnish photographers.