For me creating still life compositions is a form of self-exploration. The creating process is an intriguing and almost devotional journey through my mind. Through predilections in aesthetic decisions such as subject matter, color and composition the work reflects who I am, where I come from and what I have experienced.
I am fascinated by how much beauty exists in an ordinary thing such as a piece of toast, if looked at it in a certain way. Through photography everyday objects can be given a different kind of visual charge that provides them with new imaginative possibilities beyond their everyday functions. The fundamentals of my photographic work: the use of light, color and and empty space are distinctly present in this series, as well as my desire to contemplate the smaller things around me in new ways. I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration for this work from the photographs of Laura Letinsky and Uta Barth.
To me the meditative process of creating these images was as important as the end result. Starting with a blank white table as an empty canvas I began to create shapes and forms exploring them and appreciating the beauty of my subject’s unique qualities. Slowly shapes transformed into arrangements and after close observation I chose a certain feature for each food ingredient – revealing that quality became my starting point and the core of each image.
With the series The Ordinary I want the viewer to share my sense of wonder and joy in the ordinary objects of everyday life. Today most of us are overwhelmed by the load of information that swoops over us in a daily basis. What easily happens is that we loose the attention span required to really see and investigate the surrounding world. There is no time to let your imagination run free. I want my images to serve as a gentle reminder of the importance of daydreaming and even being bored occasionally. These vital concepts for creativity and overall mental wellbeing have somehow turned toxic and are thought of as being unproductive thus a waste of time. I want to encourage my audience to slow down from their hectic lives to a more tranquil pace in which they are able to fully see and receive the beauty and peculiarity of this miraculous world we live in.
About Lotta Lemetti
Lotta Lemetti is a photographer and visual artist from Finland. She’s the winner of Latitude Life APS international photography competition 2019 with her photography project Kekta as well as Creative Career center’s Ad Open call winner of 2018 with her work The Ordinary. At this point of her career she has refined unique vision, which embraces the beauty of the simple and mundane. Her minimal aesthetic carries through the diverse work she loves to make and she’s not afraid to use alternative processes, mixed media and graphic design in her image making.
She has been working alongside photographer Leila Fakouri for many major fashion and advertising clients in North America and art directed two issues of FAYN magazine together with visual artist Amanda Rowan. Her positive attitude, ambition and work moral led her to be selected as one of the three Finnish undergraduate students to come study in the US as a Fulbright Scholar. Her work has already been exhibited in galleries and shows in New York City, Los Angeles, Italy and Finland. [Official Website]
