Saga : the journey of Arno Rafael Minkkinen : thirty-five years of photographs /

A self-described "trickster," since 1970 Finnish-American photographer Minkkinen has created images that whimsically explore the relationship between his naked body and nature. Many of his photographs deliberately deceive, making it appear as if his hands and feet are walking across water, say, or his arm extends the length of a canyon. The photographs gathered in this retrospective are organized around The Kalevala, Finland's national epic poem. In them, Minkkinen bends his body around trees, buries himself in snow and bends a knee to match the curve of a rock formation. There is an undeniable grace to the way Minkkinen uses his body to mimic nature-his images are often startling and at times beautiful. There is also, however, a lack of variety; the images taken in 1973 look much like the ones taken in 1999, and the thematic organization of the book makes it all the more difficult to trace any development in his style or technique. The book's essays-by noted art critics Arthur Danto and A.D. Coleman and novelist Alan Lightman-are eloquent, intelligent and well written. However, like Minkkinen's photographs, they try too hard to reposition the self-portrait as a running, whimsical dialogue with the physical world. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Thirty-five years ago, Helsinki-born photographer Minkkinen began to place strict boundaries on his practice: he would photograph his naked body in various settings-natural and man-made-then "develop" the prints with no darkroom (or digital) manipulation. His black-and-white images could be of his torso arched out of a bog like a sculptural growth or of his toes peeking out from under a doorway. The artist asserts his athletic and mostly anonymous figure into natural and urban landscapes all over the world and incites questions: how is the human form organic? How does humanness belong in nature? What is autobiography? The result, presented here as a comprehensive retrospective to coincide with a series of exhibitions in the United States and Europe, contains a range of primal, humorous, disturbing, and often sublime images. Accompanied by illuminating essays by various scholars (e.g., art critic Arthur Danto) and artists (e.g., musician Peter Gabriel), Saga demonstrates that Minkkinen's self-imposed constraints have set him free on a course to pursue enthusiastically his curiosity, risk taking, and experimentation. This gorgeously produced book is highly recommended as an adventurous addition to fine art shelves at large public and academic libraries.-Debora Miller, Minneapolis (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.