Jere Satamo opens up about his photography

1. You travel a lot, where do you see yourself in 10 years? 

I see myself here in Finland, enjoying a balanced family & business life. We are both entrepreneurs with my wife and it´s been an interesting road to find a balanced life within our family. Both of us are travelling and regular working hours doesn´t belong to our dictionary. We love to travel and hopefully we can still do it in the future.

2. Your photography is full of fascinating captions of nature, does it inspire you? What else inspires you?

Absolutely nature inspires me! It´s one of the biggest sources what comes to inspiration among the movies, TV series and music. We have a beautiful nature in Finland and almost every client says that they want to have it in their pictures, so it´s obvious to shoot portraits in the nature. Especially in our area the finnish archipelago is specifically gorgeous and gives us a good opportunity to use nature´s offering as a backdrop. But still, don´t forget the emotions - they are still the most important!

3. How does your family influence your photography?

I think my children gave me new perspective to photoshooting. Now when they are young and tiny, I need to crawl or get down to their level and then I can clearly figure out their insights. I’ve always tried to photograph from different levels (talking about heights) and in that way achieve the versatile way of documenting. And my wife is the best possible curator for my work. If I’m struggling with blog posts or some stories, I need to grab her and ask her for opinion.

4. What are the most important life lessons that you've learnt from your work as a photographer?

Photography is a lot more than just having a nice camera and bunch of lenses. Photography is way more social work than many people can even imagine. You need to have good social skills, care about your clients, listen to them and be their best friend! One of the best quotes (Epictetus) I’ve heard is “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

5. You shoot a lot of analogue photos, why is that?

Haha! I think the reason for my passionate analogue photography is the way I need to photograph when using film. Of course I need to concentrate when taking digital photos, but when taking film photos, I need to concentrate even more. And the feeling when getting those developed films back from the lab, it’s like Christmas. When getting back in the car, I almost rip the package open to see the results. Of course there is also the analogue look that plays a big role when taking photos to film. You just can not simulate the genuine analogue look to your digital files. Even if there are good tools for that, the film is just film.

6. What movies and music influence your art?

Let´s say that TV series have a bigger role in influencing than movies. I like the Wes Anderson’s movies.  Wes´ movies might be a reason for center composition, but still need to do a lot what comes to symmetry and his faithful way of using backgrounds. I clearly have seasonal series that influence my art and now I’m hooked on the TV show called Peaky Blinders. The way they´ve created such an authentic early 1900’s scenery, it´s brilliant. And the crew behind lighting work, they´re just genius. As I mentioned earlier, music plays a big role influencing my art, and comparing to movies/TV series, I think music usually better supports my way of working and processing pictures. I’m used to listen to music while I edit my pictures and my playlist are so full of random music that there isn´t any strict genre. 

7. What to do you think are the aesthetic trends in photography that are worth considering now?

Hmm… Now for few years it has been a huge trend to take photos in nice landscapes and taking all the possible out of the scenery. I think we are heading to the direction where the spontaneous moments and the pure documenting takes a bigger role. We need to be aware about moments surrounding us and taking the opportunity to capture those spectacular moments in the events we are hired to. This relates also to other photography not just wedding photography. I’ve noticed that clients seem to want more genuine moments and environments than the posed ones.

Jere's imagery and perspective leaves you wanting to get to know him even more. Make sure to open up his brand new website here and to congratulate him on his new look and his gorgeous photography! 

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Creatively Yours,
Squaremuse Team