Biography Patrik Rastenberger
Patrik Rastenberger (b. 1964) is a Helsinki-based documentary photographer. After studying anthropology and philosophy at the University of Helsinki, his themes have been related to identity and the relationship between human and nature. At his best, Rastenberger's projects involve art and science and he has done projects in collaboration with social scientists.
His method is ethnographic, and he appreciates long projects as well as slow work on his subject. Rastenberger’s documentary is not based on the decisive moment, instead he tries to find images and moments that visualize and open up related themes and problems. Poetic or artistic, his style is hard to fit into any category.
Artist Statement
Can the world be perceived as such?
The way culture makes people perceive the world, is analogous to coloured eye-glasses. Many cultural minorities are like endangered like species disappearing with biodiversity loss. They carry with them a unique wisdom and vision that the majority of people does not possess. Cultural minorities need to be protected not only because they have an intrinsic value, but because they help the majority to reflect its own relationship with the world.
By photographing, I want to unravel the conventions related to cultural viewing. At times, documentary photography involves the reproduction of many unjust social and cultural conventions. How can I photograph other than my own cultural environment, and does a good intention justify documentary photography?
Can ideas and concepts be visual, and therefore photographed?
Contact info
Feel free to contact me in any kind of project
Telephone: + 358 41 5306817
E-mail: patrik@rastenberger.fi