Me Kaksi - version française

Pentti Sammallahti

Inspired by the title of a poem by the Finnish writer Aaro Hellaakoski, Me Kaksi (which translates to "we two" in French) celebrates the chance encounter, the strange proximity, the presence in the world of two beings.

Hellaakoski's literary work exalts the experience of nature, a naturphilosophy inspired by German romanticism which attempts to grasp the unspeakable, the fragility of our relationship to the world. This attempt to restore fleeting moments is found in the images of Pentti Sammallahti. The idea of ​​the duo, of the couple, of accomplices of all kinds appears recurrently in the work of the photographer. Whether it's lovers, friends, children, passers-by, travellers, neighbours, but also a man and his dog, two birds... Sammallahti's images capture singular moments , they tell of attachment, tenderness, emotional bond.

A look at more than forty years of peregrinations, the photographs in this book are so many little sketches: they materialize the experience of duality. Often immersed in a majestic nature, Irish moors or Mongolian steppes, children, women, men and animals look at each other, accompany each other, embrace each other, walk side by side: being in the world becomes obvious. Like a waking dream, these images offer an acute perception of reality. With Sammallahti, nature is experienced as an aesthetic experience, its evocative power gives images a sense of the marvelous. Ephemeral moments captured with poetry, Me Kaksi's images are apprehended like haikus, they celebrate the evanescence of things, fragments of encounters, unexpected, fortuitous, exceptional intimacy but also sometimes powerful evidence. They also tell of the universality of the affective bond, "being-in-the-world" together