About

Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a Finnish American photographer. He was born in Helsinki in 1945 and
emigrated to the United States in 1951. Graduating from Wagner College in 1967 with a BA in English
Literature, he began taking self-portraits four years later while working as an advertising copywriter.
Minolta, Peugeot, and J&B Scotch were among his key clients. One headline he wrote guided him to
consider photography seriously: “What happens inside your mind can happen inside a camera.” In the
summer of 1971 Minkkinen enrolled at Apeiron Photographic Workshops in Millerton, NY to study with
John …