PHOTOGRAPHS: KONSTA PUNKKA, JONATHAN STOKES, THE ARTISAN TRAVEL COMPANY
I have a theory that the personality of a great photographer is relected in the eyes of their portrait subjects. There’s a spooky degree of calm visible in the expressions of the creatures young photographer (and self-confessed ‘squirrel whisperer’) Konsta Punkka shoots, mostly in his native Finland. Konsta’s understanding of animal behaviour has allowed him to develop an engaging style, one loved by his 1.2 million followers on Instagram and that he discusses in this issue of Lonely Planet magazine (p102). As we put each issue together, we print of the layouts for the articles and stick them in sequence on what in magazine-making jargon is known as a working wall. I’m mentioning this because I should confess that, well into the creation of this issue, we realised that quite a menagerie of beasts was crawling across our wall. Alongside the bear, mouse and reindeer accompanying Konsta’s interview, I’ll leave you to spot the cameo appearances by penguins, bison, horses, wolves, lynx, cranes, a vulture, puins, a domestic cat, a St Bernard, a (man-made) sloth, a galah, a scarlet ibis and a ‘Christmas goat’. Which reminds me: very Happy Christmas!
