Hannu Hautala

Hannu Hautala was born in 1941 in Töysä, and he has been living in Kuusamo since 1979. 
Hannu Hautala's jorney from a village shopkeeper's son for an internationally reknowned nature photographer was a long and hard. 
Hannu Hautala's interest about photography started a very young age. He always dreamed of a camera of his own.
In the mid-fifties Hannu bought his first own camera with money he earned by picking lingonberries. These days there was not much literature on photography, which means that he have to learn everything by himself.
Hannu Hautala was always been happy about fact that his parents didin't force him to go to secondary school. He said that:
  - All of the time I would have had to sit at school and learn nothing, I was          able to wander in nature. 


Hannu Hautala left his home at eighteen year old. Because his parents sent him to in a gardening school in Pyhäranta. In 1960, after school, Hannu go to the army an there he worked on a tank mechanic. 
After work for army he started to working for a dirtmoving company as a catepillar driver. He said that:
 - I was making money hand over foot, and in weekends I took a taxi home to Tuuri to photograph, that way the working week wasn't so bad. 
Fate intervened in Hannu's career, when he fell of the machine and broke his shinbone. 


Then Hannu met his wife Irma, who was working as an office manager in a gardening company in Helsinki. They have short relationship and then they have Christmas weddings in 1971. 


From the mid-eighties to the 21st century, Hannu's books have been published also in Swedish, English, French, Japanese, Russian and Italian. 
The new nature photography centre in Kuusamo dedicated to his lifework keeps him busy in addition to his photography, which is still a priority of his life. 
 - For a photographer, every minute spent away from nature is a wasted minute. 

Some photography's about and from Hannu Hautala: