American Cowboy (SIGNED)

Karoliina Paatos
American Cowboy (SIGNED)

Photographs: Karoliina Paatos

Text: Karoliina Paatos

Publisher: The Angry Bat

120 pages

Year: 2016

Comments: Sewn hardcover with open spine, 290 x 210 mm. First edition, 2016. Text in english. Edition limited to 750 numbered and signed copies.

Many of Paatos’ series depict individuals and identities with contradictions: she is inclined to locate couplings of the romantic and the harsh, the bare and the intense, the vulnerable and the sinewy. Through her photographs Paatos explores the relationship between the people living in the sparsely populated areas and the stark nature surrounding them.[…]

Paatos’ photographic method concentrates largely on dwelling and lingering. She spends extensive amounts of time in specific spaces with her subject matters. Through this kind of immersion the essential moments become more attainable for the persistent observer. Paatos herself states that she photographs “found moments, found people, and found objects,” and recognizes how the share of the intuitive in her process always grows as the project progresses.[…]

All in all, her practice can well be positioned between the documentary and the mysterious.