Sanna Kannisto: Fieldwork

Fieldwork, the first major monograph by Finnish rising star Sanna Kannisto,explores the dialectics of nature and culture in both artistic andscientific contexts. Since 1997, Kannisto has spent several months per yearliving alongside biologists in the rainforests of Latin America. Adoptingelements of her companions' scientific methods, she developed her own formof visual research, extending her depictions of flora and fauna beyond theconfines of the natural sciences.The core practice of the natural sciences is to collect in order to inspectmore closely in the service of public knowledge. Collecting implies tamingand containment, traits shared to some extent by photography. Breaking awayfrom the conventions of scientific documentation, which typically presentsspecimens in isolation and devoid of context, Kannisto's work addresses theacts of staging and image-making. Her photographs, with their biologicallycorrect titles, show not only the breathtaking beauty of nature, but alsothe tools used to achieve the would-be image at center—the velvetyblack drapes at each side, the difficult "neutral" lighting rig, theseamless white background. Signs of a scientifically standardizedprocess—graph paper, rulers, test field markings—are alsoincluded, appearing uncharacteristically absurd, strangely out of placeamid the lush green foliage of the rainforest.With her gentle humor, Kannisto both recognizes and utilizes theconstraints of science and photography alike, investigating the concept oftruth in photography to challenge how we view and "know" the natural world.Sanna Kannisto (born in Haemeenlinna, Finland, 1974) studied photography atthe University of Art and Design in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibitedat venues in more than twenty-five countries around the world, includingCentre Pompidou, Paris; Maison Europeaenne de la Photographie, Paris;Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; and the Finnish Museum of Photography,Helsinki. She lives in Helsinki.Steve Baker (essay) is emeritus professor of art history at the Universityof Central Lancashire, UK, and has written widely on the representation anduse of animals in contemporary art. He is the author of The PostmodernAnimal and Picturing the Beast: Animals, Identity, and Representation.