The mystical power of light in my photography

Light is, for me, the most magical and elusive ingredient in photography. It’s not just a technical requirement to create an image, but above all a source of wonder, inspiration, and mystery. Every time I go out with my camera, I’m searching for light—not just any light, but light that touches something within me, that evokes a mood, that transforms a place or moment into something special.

What fascinates me time and again is how light can change a scene. An ordinary landscape can suddenly become magical during the golden hour; a portrait can tell an entirely new story with just a single streak of light. Light paints with shadows, accentuates shapes, and can turn even the most everyday subject into something mysterious. Sometimes it’s the soft, diffuse light of a misty morning, sometimes the harsh contrast of sunlight casting deep shadows. But always, it’s light that sets the tone, that defines the emotion.

Light as mystery and invitation to wonder

There are moments when light seems almost tangible—as if it not only reveals the visible but also makes the invisible felt. In those moments, photography feels mystical: light becomes an invitation to pause, to look, to feel. Sometimes the light is so fleeting that I feel as though I’m capturing a secret that will vanish in a few seconds. It’s that magic, that elusiveness, that keeps drawing me outside with my camera.

The power of light in black and white

Especially in black-and-white photography, I experience the power of light in an intense way. Without color, the interplay between light and dark becomes even more important. I find inspiration, for example, in the work of Pentti Sammallahti, a master at capturing atmosphere and poetry in black and white. His images are often simple, but light makes them magical: a misty morning, a single patch of light on an empty field, a silhouette against the light. Sammallahti shows how light not only reveals the visible but also the invisible—the mood, the silence, the mystery.

Light as a personal quest

In my own photography, light is a constant quest. I try not only to record what I see but to capture what I feel when light touches a place or a moment. Sometimes that means waiting until the light is just right; sometimes it means reacting quickly to an unexpected play of light. But always, it’s light that guides me, that challenges me to see differently, to play, to experiment.

Light, to me, is the poetry of photography. It’s the layer that connects everything: the subject, the space, the time, and above all the feeling. By surrendering to the light—and sometimes to the mystery it brings—I can create images that not only show what was there but also what was felt. And perhaps that is the greatest power of light: that it invites us to keep searching, to keep wondering, and to experience the magic of the moment again and again.