Bored Panda contacted the photographer to ask him some questions about his incredible images. We wanted to know how Juuso first got into photography, and we found out: “It has always fascinated me that you can share beautiful moments with other people through photography and help others appreciate the beauty of our world. Since I was a young child I loved spending time in nature. This is why I also wanted to share those enjoyable nature moments and the beauty and miracles of nature in my photos and that led me to capture landscapes wherever I would go. First starting from the forests around my home and later starting to explore more with a car and then I would get work trips all over the world to capture the beauty of the Earth.”
Asked to elaborate on the concept of capturing the "magical quality of life" in his photographs, Hämäläinen told us: “When we spend a lot of time in nature, especially silent and just observing nature - we can start entering into a meditative state and sensing better how nature is alive. That nature itself has a presence that we can feel. When you’re in a forest, for example, and feeling like it’s just so alive, respect towards nature naturally rises. And you feel it as very healing and calming too. It can be challenging to capture this magical feeling in photography so I also use the tool of post-processing to make the photos look like how I feel in nature. So the goal is not to document how nature in that moment looked, but how it felt, in my experience.”
Juuso shared with us some challenges he faces when trying to convey the deeper, calming effects of nature through his photographs: “It can sometimes feel like this: imagine creating a picture that shows someone what a strawberry tastes like. Or what falling in love feels like. And showing it to someone who has never tasted a strawberry or been in love. So there’s no right way how you would create the picture, it’s unique to you how you would visualize this sensation. But you might have a stronger idea of how to show it if you have a strong sensation of it.”
The photographer continued: “Or maybe writing is your way and you write poems about it. This means we have to be open and connected to our emotions. I find that when I’m in a more meditative state, the creative process is more effortless. This makes sense, of course, because that’s what the ‘flow state’, that we can enter into through a creative process, is. But it’s also helpful to know that you can enter that state even before creating anything and then the whole creative process will somehow naturally unfold in joy without doubts. This, however, is easier on some days and more challenging on others. But I find that gradually it gets easier and easier. In this way, having a creative hobby in one’s life can be a very spiritual and healing process. And vice versa, having a spiritual practice like meditation can support in one’s creative processes greatly.”
