PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Open: Tue–Fri 12–17, Sat–Sun 12–16, Closed: 24.-26.6.20113 June – 1 July 2011
KATI LEINONEN
Lifes – Wet Plate PortraitsKati Leinonen's exhibition Lifes – Wet Plate Portraits is divided into two parts: the first examines old age and the finiteness of life, the second is a collection of portraits on the theme of identity. The portraits are complex and ambiguous studies that embody historical, cultural and religious references. Ageing began taking shape as a theme in Leinonen's mind when she was taking the first wet plate photographs of her grandmother. The medium revealed the fragility of old age and human vulnerability, but also the charm and beauty of lines drawn on the face by lived life. The fragility of old age is a fundamental aspect of the human condition, and these pictures are a reminder of how we all begin our journey to old age already at birth.
The photographs were made using the wet plate collodion process which dates back to the 19th century. The glass or metal plate used as a base is cleaned, coated with collodion, and sensitised with silver nitrate just prior to exposure. The plate is developed while still wet. The manual nature of the technique produces intriguing anomalies and blemishes on the plate. The wet plate method detaches the picture from the present and makes it timeless. These photographs were all taken with a large-format camera. Each plate is unique. The dreamlike pictures possess an ethereal sensitivity.
Leinonen uses the wet plate process in her work, because her theme is the human individual and she feels that the technique allows her to come closer to her subjects. The exposure times are long, even up to tens of seconds. The long exposure times and the old-fashioned equipment turn the shooting session into a special occasion. The subject must concentrate and remain very still. Because this effectively cancels out any acquired mannerisms, the wet plate portrait often touches some fundamental depth in the person. When the picture shows the sitter's innermost self, it is devoid of all superficiality: the person is who he or she is. Often the person in the photograph seems like a twin from a past or from a parallel life or epoch. The effect is underlined by the historical nature of the technology.
Kati Leinonen graduated from the London College of Printing (today part of the University of the Arts London) in 1999, and has since worked as a photographer in advertising and the press. In 2008 she made a study trip to Rochester, USA, where she learned the wet plate method. Since then she has used the technique in her own art projects. In 2010 Leinonen won the portrait category of the Finnish Advertising Photographers' annual competition with her male studies. She has also been chosen as one of the representatives of Finnish advertising photographers for the Fotofinlandia 2011 competition. The winning portraits are featured also in this exhibition.
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For more information and press images, please contact:
Petronella Grönroos, exhibition co-ordinator / Photgraphic Gallery Hippolyte +358 9-612 33 44, firstname.lastname@hippolyte.fi
Kati Leinonen, Raili S, 2010
