Ville Lahtinen

I am a photographer and film-maker based in Turku, on the south-west coast of Finland.

Most of what I shoot is made with lenses from the last millennium. They flare, they soften toward the edges, and they refuse to render a face the way a modern lens would. I keep using them because what comes back sits closer to how the moment actually felt — and because an image that is perfectly sharp everywhere usually tells you less, not more.

The shooting is a craft and I treat it as one: you get the picture you commissioned. The edit is where I get to have an opinion, and there I will nearly always take the frame from just before or just after the posed one. It is the less conventional picture, and usually the more complete one of the person.

That habit carries into what I hand over. Most commissions come back with a few frames nobody ordered — taken while the lights were still moving, or a second after we already had the shot. They are often the ones that end up being used. My own projects work the same way: the pictures made without a brief, where I have pushed hardest, are what bring the next client through the door.

Commissions: portraits, commercial and editorial shoots, and video production through Gösta Films. Most of my work happens in Finland, but I travel. If you have something in mind, write or call — it is usually quicker to talk it through than to fill in a form.

More work on Instagram, and an interview in Turun Sanomat.