Betty Gowans - Weekly Artist Post 6

Heikki Kaski

Here, the artist could be using film, digital, or both, but I believe it is digital. The images are low contrast and low saturation or desaturated; so in some cases, color is used, but it is less prominent. Images one and two have a high depth of field. I think the third image has a high depth of field as well, but it is more difficult to discern that element because of the fog. When you zoom in, it appears everything is in focus, but the fog plays a role in setting up a visual plane - an element that is achievable without opening up the aperture all the way. He is able to use the weather to his advantage and make the details behind the trees less important in the composition. Heikki sometimes centers his subjects, as in the first and second images, and in other instances uses the thirds line rule in his composition. In the first image, he uses the background to split the composition in half. In the second, he splits it at the thirds line. In the third, the downplayed background loosely divides the composition in half horizontally.

These specific images from this series are not of people, but nature and environment. This series is called "Tranquility," which is the name of the town in Central California that he is documenting; however, I don't believe it was an accident that he chose to make peaceful or tranquil images in a town called Tranquility. They are calm, meditative, and almost somber. More specifically, the third image seems the most somber. The fashion in which the trees are bending gives off a darker, more melancholy feeling - especially in combination with the fog. I feel this series was meant to document different aspects of this town in California, stylistically in respect to its name: tranquility. 

Personally, I feel like I see a lot of these low saturation/low contrast photographs. While they are executed well, this style is just a bit over done for me. Something that he does have going for him is that he made these tranquil images in a town called Tranquility. If he was aiming to set up that juxtaposition, then in that, he succeeded.