November 2016 – Dietmar Tallroth

A Young Master

In Art & Photography / Other artists

In 2015 the small and courageous Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki held an exhibition about China’s Changing Landscape – Contemporary Ink. It showed how modern Chinese artists (yes, there is more to China than Ai Weiwei) reinterpret classical Chinese working methods and motifs. While the whole exhibition had a freshness and energy that made some Western artists look tired and repetitive, it was one single work there that took me by storm.

Now, as you meanwhile know I don’t use hyperbole, except when I do, or are prone to superlatives, except when I am. But my bag of English adjectives doesn’t quite contain enough words of praise for this still relatively young artist from Shanghai. I think I spent almost an hour just in front of his work – that is a personal record.

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Format

November 17, 2016 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / Lose thoughts

dietmartallroth-0001 — The 5:4 Format – Late Autumn Coast, Berggrund, 2016

As soon as a photographer enters the weird and wonderful world of printing, he/she is in for a number of head-scratching experiences. Suddenly confronted with a plethora of paper sizes, frame sizes, mat (passepartout) opening sizes and aspect ratios one can get overwhelmed by these seemingly technical choices. It gets worse once he or she realizes that these are artistic choices as well. Let’s have a look.

Modern DSLR cameras follow the sizes and conventions of 35mm film, that means they produce pictures in a 1.5 (3:2) aspect ratio. Paper is sold in Europe in DIN-A sizes, which uses a 1.41 (√2) aspect ratio. Standard frame sizes are e.g. 30x40cm (1.33 aspect ratio), 50x40cm (1.25 aspect ratio) or 70x50cm (1.4 aspect ratio). If one uses a mat with an opening the standard openings are 29x19cm (1.52 – close enough to 1.5…), 39x19cm (1.34) etc.

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Mourning Leonard Cohen

November 11, 2016 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / Lose thoughts

This might be somewhat off-topic, but then maybe not. The news about Leonard Cohen’s death this morning have left me a bit shaken. When Dylan was announced winner of the Nobel Prize I thought that was well deserved; still I had to think that Cohen would have been an at least as worthy recipient of that prize as he has made poetry again tangible for a whole generation.

“Suzanne” was one of the anthems of my teenage years, a song that we listened to over and over again and that became part of our emotional fabric. We couldn’t really figure out what the song was about (even though “touching your body with one’s mind” sounds very appealing to teenagers). But what was the point with tea and oranges coming all the way from China, or what had Jesus being a sailor had to do with anything?

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Nomination

November 7, 2016 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / News

Over the weekend I found out that my photograph “Reflection” from 2015 has been among the nominees in the category Professionals/Nature for the Black and White Spider Awards . Now, of course, being nominated isn’t winning (and it didn’t win) – but the award is one of the largest and most prestigious competitions for black and white photography, so by being selected among the nominees I do feel very honored. As they say, it might be a small step for mankind, but it’s a big step for me and my work.

Generally I am not very fond of photo competitions. They often reflect more the current fashion in the various photography genres than true personal expression (which, admittedly, also might be difficult to judge). One can e.g. see that quite a few of my colleagues (and jurors) are quite fond of the work of Michael Kenna. Now, Michael Kenna is certainly one of the most important current photographers and I myself admire and love his work. But I still think that diversity in approach is far more valuable; I’d rather hear the personal voices of these photographers even if the result might be more risky. But I don’t judge them – I myself do know the lure of producing something thought to be pleasing instead of questioning over and over again: is this genuinely my view on the world. And “Reflection” plays into the modern landscape minimalist theme, too.

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Scent Of Smoke

November 4, 2016 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / Lose thoughts

One of the pleasures of autumn is starting to use the fireplace again. A few days ago, when I lighted up a fire suddenly a wonderful aroma sipped into the room. An aroma I actually had forgotten to know so well and memories from my childhood dreamily invaded my mind.

This begs explaining.

Firewood in Finland is mainly produced from birch trees. Birch is one of most ubiquitous tree species in Finland. Its wood is dense and has excellent heating value, so it provides the most common firewood. The smoke from burning birchwood has a distinct leathery scent and one soon comes to identify this aroma with how smoke smells in Finland. Only, that I hadn’t known this smell at all before I moved to Finland.

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