Sunday, November 3, 2013

Christianne Harmon weekly post #11

Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a Finnish American photographer noted for his unmanipulated nude self-portraits in the landscape. Born in Helsinki in 1945, he moved with his family to America in 1951. Raised in Brooklyn, New York, he later attended Wagner College on Staten Island, majoring in English. After five years in the advertising business as a Madison Avenue copywriter, he discovered photography working on the Minolta camera account. “What happens inside your mind can happen inside a camera,” was the turning-point headline he wrote in 1970. A year later, studying with John Benson at the Apeiron Workshops in Millerton, New York, he began his self-portrait work.
He received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, studying with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. Currently he is Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is also docent and visiting professor at the University of Art & Design Helsinki and École d’Art Appliqués in Vevey, Switzerland.
Arno Rafael Minkkinen used himself for many of his portraits because a lot of the photographs were difficult to make and even dangerous. He became a photographer before photoshop and therefore continues to create amazing photographs by using the camera and not manipulating the image later. He contorts peoples body parts and puts them in nature to create very interesting photographs. He has an entire collection of photographs of him and his son from the time his son was born in 1979 through 1998 where they are nude or partially nude.
http://www.arno-rafael-minkkinen.com

1992 • Self-portrait with Maija-Kaarina • Sysmä, Finland


2002 • Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight, England


2002 • Self-portrait with Selva: Morning • Gozo, Malta<


1993 • Self-portrait with Dan (his son) • Fosters Pond


1970 • First self-portrait in New York City


2012 • Self-Portrait with Andrea • Independence Pass, Colorado



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