The Dark Rooms of... Panu Kannisto
The Dark Rooms of... is an interview series in which a photographer talks about his or her darkrooms, the digital and the mental, or technical and inspirational. What makes you click?
In this edition of The Dark Rooms of… we focus on Finnish street photographer Panu Kannisto.
By the way, if you haven’t read the previous 7 interviews, you can find them in the archive.
Here we go.
Who are you?
I am Panu Kannisto, a 24-year-old photographer from Lahti, Finland. I've been living in Espoo for about 5 years now, where I'm studying for my Master's degree in electrical engineering at Aalto University. The question of identity is actually tricky, because depending on the context I could introduce myself as a photographer, a student or a reliability engineer. But as the years go by, I'm becoming more and more of a visual artist.
Technical
Do you think technique is important?
I think technique can play a big part in your work, but there has to be a reason behind it. You can use things like deliberate camera movements, bokeh, long exposures and so on. They should be a way to convey your message, not just a trick to take pictures that look cool on the surface. As my friend Victor said, once you know the trick, the magic is gone. So there still has to be substance in the photo. There are a few people I must mention on this subject, my friend Oscar Wollsten who uses ICM effectively, Tokihiro Satō who makes his long exposures almost performance art, and Daido Moriyama who is a darkroom wizard.
What equipment do you use?
I use both digital and analogue equipment. By far my most used piece of equipment is the Ricoh GR3. I also have a Sony A7R2, but that is mainly used for scanning film these days. On the analogue side, I shoot everything from 35mm to 4x5. The GW690III is the only camera where I pay any attention to the lens, and I've put over a hundred rolls through it. For some upcoming projects I want to learn how to use my Sinar P2 4x5 more effectively. I print my film photos in the darkroom, which means I shoot mostly black-and-white negatives.
And what software?
I use Lightroom with Negative Lab Pro for my film scans and Photoshop to prepare the files for printing. Whenever I borrow a digital camera from a friend, I use Capture One to edit the photos.
How do you edit your photos?
Most of my work is shot on the GR3 and I really like the built-in RAW converter. I only use positive film for colour and high contrast black and white for everything else. In the darkroom, I like to use higher grade filters and do some light dodging and burning. This helps me match my silver gelatine prints to my digital files.
Inspirational
Where lies your heart?
Most of the photography I do could be described as reactionary. When I see something that in some way or another moves my heart, my body responds by pressing the shutter. This leads to loose compositions, blurriness and accidents. This is further emphasised in the editing I choose to do. I don't care about tiny details, dynamic range or anything like that. I try to distill pure emotion, the energy of the time and place I felt.On the other hand, in most aspects of my life, I'm a very quiet thinking person. This is something I will try to explore in my photography in the near future. Asking questions and trying to find answers. Hiroshi Sugimoto, for example, thinks about big questions, even if they seem rhetorical at first, like in the Theaters series.
Do you have your own style?
The work I choose to share on social media seems to have a style. That is what people tell me. But I feel that when I see big patterns emerging, I try to move away from them. After I completed my first photo book, Kaamos, the following winter I moved away from that kind of photography because I had done it before. But also my mental state was different, so I did not feel drawn to the same subject matter anyway. Having a style seems to me like you're comfortable with yourself and don't feel the need to change. There is still a lot of self-development to be done, which means that my photography has to evolve with it.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Inspiration comes from a number of sources. I consume a lot of movies and photo books. And I mean a lot, like 100+ movies a year that I sit down and watch with full attention. I also have a growing collection of photography books and zines. These are the sources from which I steal ideas. Like what kind of layout I can do for a book, what has been done in the past, what others are doing now, what kind of visual tricks can be done.The real inspiration comes from music and literature. Music has the power to really alter your state of mind, so it determines what I shoot and how I shoot. I can listen to Mika Vainio and feel detached from the outside world, maybe put on some Jedi Mind Tricks and go to the city centre, which sometimes feels like a meat grinder, or play some Coltrane and feel awestruck.
Does your project start with an idea or with a loose image?
My projects start with an idea. I have a notebook full of them, some good, some bad. The idea can be a theme, a book format that needs to be explored, or a place. I don't really go out and shoot for projects, I just let the images gather slowly.
When is your project finished?
The project is finished when it becomes a publication. While I'm still studying, I can use the art facilities and especially the printmaking workshop. There is a great teacher there, Pia Parjanen-Aaltonen. So while I have access, I want to learn everything about bookbinding and printing techniques. That's why I think of my projects as books or zines.
During your project, do you already know how it ends?
Often when I write down an idea I can see the finished book in my head. The images themselves are blurry, but I can see the book. I can hold it in my hands, turn the pages and feel it. There is a rough layout and elements in it. After this visualisation, all I need is a mass of images to fill it with reality. Then I can go into the workshop and make it a fact.
What is your favorite photo and why?
I had a hard time choosing between two, but maybe this one shows some of my progress as an artist. It also has a certain sentimental value.As for the background, it was taken at the MoA in Photography 23 exhibition. My friend Yujie Zhou, who I met at the workshop I mentioned earlier, was having a performance as part of her exhibition. It was the last day and I finally had time to see it live. I knew roughly how it was going to go, and I'd been to the exhibition space before, so I had some idea of the composition. I could visualise the print as I pressed the shutter on my GW690III. The final print matched that idea and made me happy.
The photo itself crystallises my thoughts about this spring. From the feedback I've received, I think it shows. It's the first framed photo on my wall and I gave the print to her, my friend.
Future
What do you want to achieve
My short term goals are to produce 3 books, 1 from my just finished trip to Tokyo, 1 from my Keilaniemi project and 1 from my teahouse project, and also to hold an exhibition of the Tokyo photos.In the long term, I would like to improve my conceptual photography to a level where I feel comfortable sharing it with the world. I also want to improve my Finnish language skills so that I can make better use of text in my future books. Finally, I want to become a good printer, more of a graphic artist. That means getting better at screen printing, letterpress, bookbinding and learning polymer photogravure. That way I could do exhibitions that don't feel as one-dimensional as what I can do now with my current skills.
What do you want to know from others? You may ask one photographer one question. What would that be?
From most artists I would like to know their raison d'être, what drives them. Also, one simple thing I would like to learn from experienced photographers is how to dry fibre prints really flat. Joking aside, it's difficult to ask a single question of a single photographer. Since I recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Tatsuo Suzuki, perhaps the question is for young Daido Moriyama.“What goes through your mind when you make prints?”
Where can we see more
You can find me on Instagram @pansku.streetI usually just share my digital snaps there, no film photos. I also sometimes share more aspects of my work on the streets in the form of ROZOU-N in Helsinki city center. If you want to learn more about the concept I suggest reaching out to Tadashi Onishi or going to linktr.ee/rozouproject Lastly there are two copies of my first publication Kaamos available for the public. One of them is located in Teemaa teahouse and the other one is in Nari Tea.
That’s it for this newsletter
Do you like this interview? Do you want to see more? Send my some suggestions for photographers you like to see interviewed at Darkrooms. Of course you can suggest yourself if you have an interesting story to tell.
Till next time,
Like these interviews? Lucky you, there’s 7 more of them in the archive.