Pentti Sammallahti
Born in Helsinki in 1950, Pentti Sammallahti is one of Finland's leading photographers. His interest began early: he made his first pictures of everyday life at eleven. Always in black and white, his photographs resemble fables, as in the celebrated series The Russian Way, published in 1996 with texts by John Berger. “I always work in the same way: I travel, make no precise plans and stop whenever something seems interesting.” Nordic landscapes, endless roads, snow-covered forests, hamlets and vast plains reveal a contemplative vision deeply attuned to nature.
After teaching in the 1970s at the Lahti School of Art and later at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Sammallahti devoted himself entirely to photography. During the 1990s, he travelled through Europe, Asia and Siberia, undertaking further photographic journeys, including a 2005 trip to Africa commissioned by Japan Today. He has published around forty works and exhibited at Les Rencontres d'Arles. In France, he is represented by Galerie Camera Obscura.
Guilhem Lesaffre
Born in Paris in 1954, Guilhem Lesaffre lives in Brittany's Côtes-d'Armor. After studying modern literature, he worked for nearly forty years as a teacher, educational adviser and teacher trainer. Since 1975, he has been actively involved in organisations studying and protecting birds and their habitats, as well as the educational work essential to sharing natural-history knowledge and preserving species and environments.
He chaired the Centre Ornithologique d'Île-de-France (CORIF) from 2008 to 2015, was vice-president of the regional nature and biodiversity agency Natureparif from 2013 to 2017, and joined the board of the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) in 2016. He was awarded the Legion of Honour in 2017 for his environmental commitment. A field ornithologist since 1971, he has worked in France, elsewhere in Europe, Africa and North America, contributing to regional and national surveys of breeding and wintering birds. He is also the author of numerous books on birds and nature.
For this volume, Lesaffre explores the relationship with the seasons, a fundamental aspect of birds' lives. Where winter occurs, it presents a major challenge, prompting strategies for finding food, conserving energy and forming flocks. His text connects birds' winter lives with Sammallahti's photographs.
