Triggered: Sanna Kannisto
Private Collection © Sanna Kannisto
Private Collection
Collecting takes many forms in my photographs. When working in the Costa Rican rainforest, I set up a light trap to attract insects. My idea was to collect insects using white drapes and photograph those in my small-scale field studio. But then I felt that the nocturnal rainforest and the entire setup itself was so amazing that I decided to photograph it.
I have been working in scientific field stations alongside researchers throughout my career as an artist, collaborating with them along the way. I have been seeking a new role for myself to work between art and science. In this photograph, I portray myself as an artist but also as a researcher, a collector and an explorer. I have been interested in museology and the early 16th- and 17th-century European collections called “Wunderkammer,” which displayed the roles of wonder and curiosity. These early collections tested boundaries of the known and the unknown. I have thought about photography as a tool of understanding, organizing and approaching nature. With the means of photography and lot of practice in the field, I have created for myself a kind of general understanding of the diverse flora and fauna of the rainforest.
For more about the photographer, click here.
