Photographer of the Month: Ari Jaaksi

Photographer of the Month – Ari Jaaksi

Tell our audience briefly who you are and what inspired you to take on photography?

I'm Ari Jaaksi, a photographer from Tampere, Finland. I shoot black and white film and print my own work in the darkroom. I’ve spent most of my life building software systems in Finland and the US. My interest in black and white film photography started as a counterbalance to my digital and software life, and now, several books and exhibitions later, I'm still trying to make a picture that holds still. Software is endlessly revisable; a negative isn't.

Picture 1: Self Portrait

What’s your photographic process, what matters to you when you take a photograph and why?

I start with a place and a kind of light, not a subject or a moment. Then I look for whatever would challenge the stillness there, such as a dark edge or something at the margin of the frame, and build the picture so the stillness holds against it. I call it won silence: quiet that is earned, not stumbled on. But pressing the shutter is the smaller half of the work. The negative is raw material, and the physical photograph gets made afterwards, in the darkroom or in Lightroom and printing, by deciding what to emphasize and what to leave dark.

Picture 2: This matters 

Describe the 'one that got away'—a photo you saw in your mind but couldn't capture?

I can't think of one, because I don't arrive with a picture in my head. I arrive with a place and some light, I pay attention and shoot, and the picture gets built later in the darkroom. There's nothing in my head to lose.

Do you believe in a 'soulmate' camera? Which piece of gear feels like an extension of your body rather than a tool in your hand? How did you end up with the current gear/kit you have now?

I'm skeptical of the word, but my Rolleiflex 2.8F comes closest. It has one of the most beautiful lenses (Planar 80mm, F2.8) ever manufactured. It is also entirely mechanical and has never failed on me. Also, the waist-level finder is superior to any other compositional and focusing tool.

Picture 4a: The glow of a Rolleiflex

I love cameras that leave their mark on my photos. My typical photo shoot kit is my Rolleiflex accompanied with a Holga. Those two pretty much cover the extremes between which all other cameras will fall into!

Picture 4b: Abstracted by a Holga

I accumulate different gear I find interesting. And then, through trial and error, some gear gets used more, some less. There really is no system for me. 

Is there a specific photograph or body of work in history that changed the way you look through a viewfinder? How does its influence show up in your work today?

Hiroshi Sugimoto's Seascapes. They showed me that a horizon and some water can carry a whole picture, and you can see that in how much I leave out of the frame. His example has encouraged me to seek things that simply are.


Picture 5: Inspired by Hiroshi Sugimoto

What is the most 'technically imperfect' photo you’ve ever taken that you still absolutely love? Why?

I do not know which is the most  'technically imperfect' photo I’ve ever taken as there are many. But here is a recent one I like, taken with a cheap Kodak Brownie on experimental Ukrainian film, Polyfilm, by Igor Polyakov. I love this photo because it doesn't merely document – it creates its own universe and a point of view. 

Picture 6: A Universe

When you’re out shooting for yourself, do you find yourself looking first? Light? Moment? Colors? What?

Light, then tone. I work in black and white, so I'm not looking at color that much other than when using color filters or, say, orthochromatic film. I'm asking how bright that water is next to that sky and how dark the darkest area will print. After that I look for whatever pushes against the stillness. The moment comes last, and it matters least to me.

Picture 7: Pushing from top-right

How do you deal with 'G.A.S.' (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)? Does owning more gear make you a better storyteller, or does it get in the way?

How do I deal with it — I buy more! And owning many cameras and tools make me a better photographer as multiple cameras I use give me different ways to capture interesting images. More is more!

I do not consider myself a storyteller. I don’t think my photographs tell stories – they simply show static images. And those images can then evoke stories or memories in the viewer's mind. Claiming that photographs tell stories undermines the art of storytelling.


Picture 8: A captured image – not a story - through a Hasselblad Super Wide Camera

Have you ever had to explain the value of a dedicated camera to someone? Do you think dedicated cameras are a dying thing in the midst of AI and smartphones?

Often. I don't argue about image quality, because a phone wins on convenience and often on specs. I explain it as a different activity. A phone is built to give you a decent picture of anything, and a film camera asks you to decide before you press. 

With a phone and AI, the software makes most of those decisions for you. After thirty-plus years in technology I don't see the phone as the enemy, and AI doesn't worry me either. A generated image never had light fall on anything; a negative did. Dedicated cameras won't be what most people use, but they'll be what some people choose.


Picture 9: A pinhole camera calls for dedication

What is your 'comfort' film stock? The one you load when you just want to enjoy the process without worrying about the results?

Ilford FP4+, developed in Rodinal. It's predictable and forgiving, and I know how it behaves. When I load it, the only question is the light.

Picture 10: Ilford FP4+ developed in Rodinal

Every photographer has their resources. Which ones do you recommend for learning more about photography (courses, books, documentaries, workshops)?

Ansel Adams's The Negative and The Print remain the best account of how negative and print work together. Barthes's Camera Lucida is good for thinking about what a photograph is. Simone Weil's essay on school studies in Waiting for God is about attention, and it taught me about how to simply look at things. For the practical side, use Ilford's technical datasheets and https://www.digitaltruth.com/. Then spend an afternoon in a shared darkroom, or go on a photo session with a photographer you admire – because watching other people work teaches more than any book. 


Picture 11: Darkroom leftovers

What do you value in a camera, why do you select to use a specific one to take photographs with?

I value a camera that leaves its mark on my negatives. My Rolleiflex leaves a glow, my Holga hides unnecessary details, and my pinhole camera brings foreground and infinity together.  

Picture 12: My pinhole camera brings foreground and infinity together

If you could go back in time, what moment would you want to be photographing?

I wouldn't choose an event. I'd stand on a Finnish shore two hundred years ago at first light and make one long exposure. An obvious answer would be a famous moment, but I'm more curious about how ordinary places looked when nobody was watching.

Picture 13: Finnish shore last weekend, 7 AM – 1 sec exposure

What part of the photographic process matters the most to you?

Printing. Adams said the negative is the score and the print is the performance, and I agree. In the darkroom I decide how dark the darkest area is, how far the light falls off, and whether the picture holds still. That's where a frame stops being a record and becomes something I made. The waiting before the shutter is a close second.

Picture 14: I made these

If you had to shoot a high-stakes editorial on a single roll of film, which camera-and-lens combo from our current inventory would you trust, and why?

My Rolleiflex 2.8F with its 80mm Planar, loaded with Ilford FP4+ and developed in Rodinal 1+50. Twelve frames on a roll of 120 force you to decide before you press, and the negative is big enough to print large.

Picture 15: My tried and true

Imagine you find a un-developed roll of film from 50 years ago that hasn't been seen by anyone yet. Before you develop the film, what do you *hope* is on that roll, and why is that the version of the world you want to preserve?

Pictures taken by my dad, with his Nettar camera. Why – because I’d like to see how my dad saw the world. 

Picture 16. My dad; his self portrait from the late 50’s

Buy Ari's book and a signed print here