Features artist in
fine art photography
Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Throughout the 70¢s and early 80¢s, photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen created a body of work (no pun intended) in which he explored the idea of the inherent naturalness of the human form. While this is not a revolutionary idea, it is MinkkinenÕs execution that seperates him from otherÊartists workingÊwith similiar concepts in mind. In each self portrait, Minkkinen isolates parts of his body in such a way as to make them seem foreign. Upon first viewing, the body in questionÊfrequently appears either severed, unrecognizeable as part of a humanÊwhole, or existing in the worldÊseemingly through supernatural intervention. ÊMinkkinen is quick to point out in his artistÕs statement that none of the images have been manipulated through digital or mechanical means. Everything you see is as the camera saw it in the natural world.
By seperating the human body from itÕs normal social connotations Minkkinen is able to, without undo emotional reference, make a precise (almost medical)Êargument for itÕs naturalness. This turn of logic is quite unexpected in viewing the pieces. It is easy to at first assume that by removing the human form from itÕs natural genetic place in the world that the viewer would become alienated from it. In reality, it is rather the opposite that occurs. By changing it context, the spectator is able to finally see that the normative way in which they have always viewed the body has been shaded by cultural contextualization. By instead showing us the whole for itÕs parts, Minkkinen has madeÊis possible for us to view the Êhuman form as what it truly is: magnificent and mundane.
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