“Out of limitations, new forms emerge,” wrote Georges Braque. “Unless we see with the eyes of a child; we make no art” is how Brancusi saw things. Guided by such wisdom, mystery and magic would be my guiding stars.
To satisfy Braque, I made a contract with myself about what I would not do. There would be no manipulation of any kind—whether in the camera or in the printing stages outside normal density and contrast controls—so that the image would correspond exactly with the reality before the lens. To take up Brancusi’s dictum, I would be that child. In any case, there would be no need for clothes in a timeless world. All the better to create the equation that we are but a part of nature. Nor would I photograph someone else to take my place as my model in the photographs. No one should be in discomfort or in harm’s way other that me. To preserve my signature in the work and not make it a collaborative process, the only eye with access to the viewfinder would be my own. I would learn to embrace the freedom of working alone and become a solo traveler, letting the landscape, the light, and the lens drive my love for photography. Trusting luck to hold out, there would be no end in sight to what could be possible. Nothing has changed since 1969 nor do I see changing anything. Just make it different and keep it the same.
Art is risk made visible. Courage is fear made invisible. I seek to be able to manifest these principles into my working practice. Surely then would the heart and soul of my undertaking be made visible to audiences worldwide.
©Arno Rafael Minkkinen 9.6.2025
Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a Finnish American photographer with over 100 solo exhibitions—with some three dozen of these being museum venues—and 200 group exhibitions at galleries, museums, and institutions worldwide. Emeritus Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Docent at Aalto University School of Art, Design, and Architecture in Helsinki, Minkkinen’s writings and academic and curatorial endeavors have been equally extensive and international in scope. Already in 1969—well before the self-portrait genre became what it is today—Minkkinen began what would become a personal quest, dedicating over five decades now to a single concept, that of unmanipulated nude self-portraits in communion and counterpoint with nature and urban settings. To date his shooting locations number 30 countries around the world and 30 American States.
After obtaining a B.A. degree in English Literature from Wagner College, Minkkinen spent five years as Madison Avenue copywriter working primarily on automobile, airline, and camera accounts. A headline he wrote for Minolta cameras—What happens inside your mind can happen inside a camera— inspired him to study with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at Rhode Island School of Design where he received his MFA degree in photography in 1974.
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