Stranger

In the Stranger photo series, Mäntynen poses for a photo with people she has never met before. Together they ask: How do we pose for a photo? Can we touch each other? What can we do together?

What would being together be without preconceptions about others, and unspoken rules? How would we encounter each other without past, future, opinions, or actions taken?

The performative Stranger -photo series includes photographs in which the artist Mari Mäntynen appears with strangers. Each picture is taken during the first encounter with the new person. The underling idea of ​​the photos suggests: We are each other’s environment.

In the social approaches and during the image-making process, Mäntynen challenges social norms and asks each other with the person being photographed: How do we position ourselves in the photo? Can we touch each other? What can we do together? The images and poses are created in collaboration with the subject. The subject has control over how they appear in the image. After the photo is taken, there is time to settle and to talk about the experience and about each other.

Mäntynen studies social situations and problems by organizing them, participating in them, photographing them, and finally watching them with the participants. For Mäntynen, the performative method of taking pictures is very important. At its deepest, her intention is to create friction and tension that somehow changes reality. For Mäntynen, performativity means power and effect.

The series includes about 30 finished photos and Mäntynen is constantly producing more images.