Sanna Kannisto

Sanna Kannisto’s oeuvre combines personal narrative with the idea of photography as objective documentation. Kannisto observes natural phenomena, but also her own individual position as an actor, experiencer and explorer in producing images and interpreting data. She studies not just the fascinating species, but also metaphors for seeing, and the codes of scientific visualization. Kannisto’s photographs can be viewed as a performance: she creates field studios that function both as a laboratory as well as a stage for the photographic process. The images focus on plants and animals that we can rarely hope to see in their natural habitats, while the theatrical presentation distances us from the subject matter.

Sanna Kannisto (b. 1974, Hämeenlinna) has an MA degree in Photography from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (now Aalto University). She has been awarded, among others, the Artist Professorship Grant of the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (2025-2029), the Finnish State Prize for Photography (2015) and Finnish Cultural Foundation Grand Prize (2012). Her works have been exhibited in museums, galleries and photography festivals across 30 countries in Europe, the USA, Asia, and South America. Kannisto’s recent solo exhibitions include Sense of Wonder, presented first in 2020 at the Finnish Museum of Photography and in 2022 at Maison Louis Carré in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne in France, Fieldwork at Centro de la Imagen in Lima, Peru in 2019, and Observing Eye at Helsinki Contemporary in 2019. Her work is represented in several public collections abroad, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, Maison européenne de la photographie and Fonds national d’art contemporain in France, and in numerous other public and private collections in Finland and abroad.