Extreme selfies: the photographer who goes out on a limb – in pictures

Arno Rafael Minkkinen has been using his body as his subject for five decades. Working alone, in natural landscapes, his timeless images – never manipulated or retouched – are surreal, spiritual and transformative

Main image: Halfway Up Mt Mitchell, Burnsville, North Carolina, 2013. Photograph: Arno Rafael Minkkinen

  • Fosters Pond, 2011

    Finnish-American photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen has been making self-portraits since the early 70s. His images feature the naked body – his – in natural landscapes, creating a timeless feel – images that could have been made 500 years ago had cameras existed.Minkkinen is published by Kehrer Verlag. All photographs: Arno Rafael Minkkinen.
    Fosters Pond, 2011Minkkinen’s self- portraiture stands as one of genre’s longest, nonstop continuities in the history of photography.

  • Fosters Pond, 2000

    Minkkinen allows the organic forms in his outdoor surroundings to guide the compositions of his images and the shapes his body assumes. His surreal self-portraits seamlessly blending his own body with the natural elements so that each photograph becomes a visual puzzle of where the landscape ends and his limbs begin – as he ‘makes communion’ with nature
    Fosters Pond, 2000

  • King of Fosters Pond, Fosters Pond, 2013

    Minkkinen writes: ‘Many of my photographs are difficult to make. Some can even be dangerous. I do not want to have someone else coming in harm’s way taking the risks I need to take: to lean out off a cliff or stay underwater for the sake of my picture. We control how much pain we can tolerate; such information is unknowable by anyone else. Some of my pictures might look simple, but they can test the limits of what a human body is capable of or willing to risk. I title them self-portraits, so the viewer knows who is in the picture and who took it’
    King of Fosters Pond, Fosters Pond, 2013This monograph is spanning five decades of work by the acclaimed Finnish-American photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen

  • Maroon Bells Sunrise, Aspen, Colorado, 2012

    ‘Art is risk made visible,’ he says
    Maroon Bells Sunrise, Aspen, Colorado, 2012Whether he is working along lakes hores or beaches, in cities or forests, from majestic mountain tops or buried in the snow, Minkkinen aims to create a balance between the naked human form and the natural and urban worlds wherein we exist, re- minding us that we are foremost beings without clothes.

  • Saunderstown, Rhode Island, 1974

    He works alone, his images are all unmanipulated, made with one exposure, with no retouching. ‘I do not use an assistant to look through the camera; otherwise she or he also becomes the photographer. Instead, I have nine seconds to get into the scene, or if I am using a long cable release bulb, I can press it and throw it out of the picture, knowing nine seconds later the camera will fire’
    Saunderstown, Rhode Island, 1974

  • With Ren Xinyu along the Li River at Twenty Yen, Guilin, China, 2016

    Minkkinen writes: ‘“Out of limitations new forms emerge,” Georges Braque said. My translation: know what you will not do. For me this means embracing reality as a collaborator in the invention of the image, not overlaying multiple images to create such impressions. In the end, my negatives will never give away how I made any one of my photographs. They will always print with the same information as found in them the day the negatives were made’
    With Ren Xinyu along the Li River at Twenty Yen, Guilin, China, 2016

  • From the Shelton, Looking East, New York, 2005

    His images can be surreal, spiritual, and transformative, and are often tinged with a profound sense of humour
    From the Shelton, Looking East, New York, 2005Presseinformation Kehrer Verlag HeidelbergThe results can be surreal, spiritual, and transformative, often tinged with a profound sense of humor

  • Halfway Up Mt Mitchell, Burnsville, North Carolina, 2013

    ‘What the camera sees at the moment of exposure is what I try to envision in my mind. Therein lies the magic of photography for me. It’s why it is always Christmas in my darkroom’
    Halfway Up Mt. Mitchell, Burnsville, North Carolina, 2013

  • Gravity Sleeps, Žirje on the Adriatic, Croatia, 2016

    ‘Only the camera knows what happened. You will not find out until you see the negative and make the positive. In good pictures, the mystery will still be a mystery’
    Gravity Sleeps, Žirje on the Adriatic, Croatia, 2016 ©

  • Oulujärvi Afternoon, Paltaniemi, Kajaani, Finland, 2009

    The newly published monograph features images from nearly 30 countries and 20 American states, spanning 50 years of photography
    Oulujärvi Afternoon, Paltaniemi, Kajaani, Finland,2009The newly published monograph features images from nearly 30 countries and 20 American states, spanning 50 years of photography.
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