RUTA SAKSENS KALMANE
Kunstfotografie
Art project developer with a MA in Photography from Falmouth University in the UK. Exhibiting art-photography in solo and group exhibitions since 2021. Creating art pieces beyond traditional photography, from innovative fotomontages to alternative photography processes.
In the recent years I have become more of a photographer-farmer rather than a photographer-hunter, cultivating my own work over a longer period of time until the harvest is ready to be showed to the public. The process of layering images has fascinated me since the beginning of my photography studying days, but it is only in the past two years that my focus has been switched entirely towards creating photomontages. For now, this is the area of photography in which I am going to hang out for a while, exploring the vast possibilities that it offers.
FLORAL FIREWORKS
Terwijl koude dagen voorbij gaan en de natuur zich voorbereidt op warmer weer, brengt dit project de zomer naar binnen door de bonte kleuren en het delicate spel tussen de rijke flora en fauna in de levendige kunstwerken van Ruta Saksens Kalmane. Volgens een grootschalig onderzoeksrapport van WWF Living Planet Report, is de Nederlandse natuur de afgelopen decennia geconfronteerd met een afname van natuurgebieden en wilde dieren, vooral de vogel- en vlinderpopulaties. Dit project vestigt de aandacht op de biodiversiteit om ons heen en nodigt de kijker uit om even stil te staan, te genieten van kleurrijk fleurig vuurwerk en om weg te dromen bij de vrolijke fotomontages. Deze stralende kunstwerken zijn vitamines voor de ziel en nodigen uit om uit te kijken naar warmere maanden vol bloeiende bloemen, vogels en insecten.
While cold days go by and nature prepares for warmer weather, this project brings summer indoors through the juicy colors and delicate play between the vivid flora and fauna subjects in Ruta Saksens Kalmane's vibrant artworks.
According to a WWF Living Planet Report large-scale study, in recent decades Dutch nature has faced a decline in natural open spaces and wildlife, especially bird and butterfly populations. This project draws attention to the biodiversity around us and invites viewers to pause, indulge in the colorful floral fireworks, and get carried away by the joyful photomontages. These radiant artworks are vitamins for the soul, inviting us to look forward to warmer months full of blooming flowers, chirping birds, and buzzing insects.
PHOTOMONTAGES
The "Floral fireworks" series contains photomontages created from multiple digital photographic images. By stacking images, the realistic images transform. They undergo a metamorphosis, resulting in a new, unique photomontage. Although the flora and fauna subjects are easily recognizable, you are left bewildered and constantly questioning what is real and what is not in the photomontages. These artworks balance on the line between reality and surrealism. All photomontages were created between the fall of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. They are made from multiple manually layered and modified digital photographic images from the photographer's archive.
ANTHOTYPES
The colours of flowers are also visible in several anthotypes. These prints don't come from a printer, but are created through the collaboration of flowers, humans, and the sun. To create an anthotype, a positive image or object is placed on paper with an emulsion of petals. The work is then placed in a sunny location. Only after a few hours or days does the print become clearly visible.
FLORACHROMES
This project features monochrome colour blocks that allow the viewer to experience nature in its purest form. During the process of pressing petals, the colour changes, sometimes dramatically. The petals are pressed with a little water and strained through gauze. The liquid is then applied to the paper repeatedly with a brush. This series of monochrome flower colour blocks allows the viewer to see flowers from a different perspective.
ANTHOTYPES
The colours of flowers are also visible in several anthotypes. These prints don't come from a printer, but are created through the collaboration of flowers, humans, and the sun. To create an anthotype, a positive image or object is placed on paper with an emulsion of petals. The work is then placed in a sunny location. Only after a few hours or days does the print become clearly visible.
FLORACHROMES
This project features monochrome colour blocks that allow the viewer to experience nature in its purest form. During the process of pressing petals, the colour changes, sometimes dramatically. The petals are pressed with a little water and strained through gauze. The liquid is then applied to the paper repeatedly with a brush. This series of monochrome flower colour blocks allows the viewer to see flowers from a different perspective.
THE LAST DROP MAKES THE CUP RUN OVER
Inspired by my daily life as a full-time mother to a toddler, the project ‘The Last Drop Makes the Cup Run Over’ was a mirror of my mental state of mind after becoming a parent, illustrating through photomontages of nature photography the overwhelming feelings arising from occasional frustration, sensory overload, sleep deprivation, emotional meltdowns, and increased stress level caused by being a parent of a young child.
Raising a toddler can be a bittersweet experience, often leaving the parent exhausted, unable to focus, feeling extremely irritated, frustrated and off-balance, and reaching a burnout. Such feelings can be caused by sensory overstimulation, reaching the neurological threshold of one or more senses. When constantly being triggered to the point the last drop makes the cup run over, our true identity and inner peace are hijacked by flight-or-fight reflexes. Using photography as a therapy to regain balance in life, this project is a projection of motherhood emotional struggles which are presented through images of the natural world, depicting intense emotions sublimated into digital photomontages consisting of digital photographic and pinhole images.
ARTIST BOOKS
Photographically illustrated stories for children
THE BUSH MONSTER
2023
‘The Bush Monster’ is an interactive photographically illustrated rhyming story in English for children inspired by both my son and nature in my garden, located in the Dutch woodland region ‘The Veluwe’. The project tells an unusual story of a bush monster who is used to hunting creatures that are different than others and chooses a wooden reindeer as his next target.
Having a child who is being raised in multiple languages by two parents who have different nationalities, for me as a mother means paying extra attention to how well the child fits into a local children’s social circle. Bullying happens across all ages, to children and adults alike. People who are bullied often feel miserable, scared, hurt and ashamed. Quite often the person being bullied suffers in silence and feels lonely. This peculiar tale, which is dedicated to my son, can serve as a starting point for a more in-depth discussion between an adult and a child, raising questions around such topics as bullying, being different, envy, empathy and forgiveness.
‘The Bush Monster’ is a conceptual continuation of the rhyming story ‘What happens to leaves when they fall off trees?’ and illustrates a story with nature photography told in an anthropomorphistic manner and with an emphasis on pareidolia, highlighting arbitrary connections in nature that lead to new meanings by combining, cutting, adjusting, rearranging, decolourising, flipping, inverting, layering and mirroring digital photographic images to achieve unusual combinations which the viewer can decipher together with the complementing textual information. The project also includes digital pinhole and reversed lens images. It all includes work from other mediums such as handmade paper, organic matter and a sound track, allowing the playfulness and experimentation to further enrich the project, and providing an opportunity for children to interact with the story by actively involving visual sense in combination with textual information and auditory and tactile senses, offering a more complex engagement.
WHAT HAPPENS TO LEAVES
WHEN THEY FALL OFF TREES?
2022-2023
'What happens to leaves when they fall off trees?' is a photographically illustrated rhyming story for children inspired by my deceased daughter and Dutch nature. The project tells the unusual story of an oak tree leaf that seeks an answer to the question ‘What happens to leaves when they fall off trees?’.
When the coldest and dreariest days of the year come, it is time for leaves to end their active life cycle and make space for the next season's leaves. Similarly, all living organisms, including humans, have a certain life cycle to follow and it is only natural for one to wonder what happens after one dies. Explaining the topic of death to children can be a particularly difficult task that should be done in a gentle manner so that children see death as a part of one's life and are encouraged to think about their deceased family members with love and respect. This unusual tale serves as a starting point for a deeper discussion between an adult and a child around the topic of life after death.
This project illustrates a story with bird and nature photography told in an anthropomorphistic manner, highlighting arbitrary connections in nature that lead to new meanings by combining, layering, cutting, adjusting, rearranging, decolourising, flipping and mirroring digital photographic images to achieve unusual combinations which the viewer can decipher together with the complementing textual information. The project also includes a digital pinhole image, reversed lens image, toned cyanotype, as well as it includes work from other mediums like handmade paper, organic matter and a sound track, allowing the playfulness and experimentation to further enrich the project, and providing an opportunity for children to interact with the story by actively involving visual sense in combination with textual information and auditory and tactile senses, offering a more complex engagement.
SAMENWERKINGSPROJECTEN
THE PARK BEHIND MY BACKYARD
2021
This project represents a view of the networking, co-existence, collaboration and connectedness among the Venserpark's living organisms. Every day hundreds of people pass through the park, but only a few take their time to connect with the flora and fauna of the small open space. The park's area is home to a variety of animals, plants and trees, and they all seem to be co-existing and collaborating in a harmonious way, following the natural cycle of life. The greenery is a world full of connections, offering the observer multiple interpretations of its identity that can be viewed, travelling through the concepts of time, temporality, repetition, rhythm, cycle and resilience.
Besides digital photographic images, the project includes also several other photographic approaches (such as film camera, hunt camera, DSLR pinhole cap, underwater camera, anthotype prints and a reverse lens on a DSLR camera for macro effects), providing much space for experimentation and alternative processes that in a way helped to strengthen my own bond with the natural park environment, and slow down the process to have more time to connect with the urban park environment.
The project is also enriched by nature sounds that the Dutch sound engineer Joshua Krosenbrink captured in Venserpark at exact places where the photographic images were taken in the fall of 2021.
Although the trees, the plants and the birds don't have their own voice, they all have a story to tell. By actively involving the viewer's visual, auditory and tactile senses, a more complex engagement and perception of the topic is achieved, allowing the viewer to soak up bits and pieces of Venserpark's identity and puzzle together an overview of the park's hidden daily life.
HUMAN-CANINE BOND
2021
This participant-focused project reflects on dog-as-a-pet ownership in a contemporary urban environment. The material was obtained using disposal cameras, a pet camera, through interviews, sound recorder, travelling smartphone and a digital camera.
Much as the unpredictable nature of animals, so was the approach of the photography outcome. The work relied on the method of chance, leaving the outcome to some extent in the hands of the participants themselves. The outcome is a mix of viewpoints from the three involved parties (the photographer, dogs and their owners) and allows a viewer to be carried away to an arbitrary space where simplicity intertwines with complexity in the daily lives of dogs.
The relationship between humans and their pets is never perfect, much like the strategy of presenting the work itself. The raw material obtained from the participants is left untouched and blended into photocollages.