“One of the things about working on a conceptual, fine-art photography project,” points out Kaupo Kikkas, “is that the work of creating images happens far more outside of the camera than in regular photography. You can spend a year and a half imagining and planning, or looking for the right location, then the shooting is over in a couple of hours.”

“It’s not always that slow,” he laughs, continuing, “sometimes images come in a flash. But the reality is projects like this can take the better part of a decade to complete. When things come together and it’s completed, you are always self-critical, but the process can be deeply satisfying from a creative point of view.”

Splitting his time between a successful career in creative music photography, where he shoots for magazine covers, posters and album artwork, to fine-art projects like Inner Cosmos, it’s in the latter that Kaupo feels he can show off the more searching elements of his character. “I can make images that ask questions about the character of humanity and the world we’ve created,” he explains.

This more resonant, thoughtful type of photography is certainly at odds with the majority of images we consume daily, and Kaupo says projects like this can struggle to be seen in the torrent of imagery. “The amount of photography out there in the world is so extreme, that often it's hard to dig out the more serious authors because they’re not so glamorous. They don’t give an instant hit of pleasure like beautiful shots of tropical islands, wildlife or models. But it’s important to challenge those spaces, and old-fashioned art photography is having something of a renaissance in doing that. And while a lot of conceptual photography includes aspects of pain or worry about the planet and human life, I always try to make images in a kind of a gentle and captivating way, which will still please aesthetically.”

The project, a surreal mix of socio-anthropological questions, literary inspiration and mythological tropes, all rendered in stark monochrome, is meant to exercise the brains of its viewers as much as its creator, Kaupo says. In its exhibited and book form this includes a beautiful original soundtrack and passages of text from contributors as well as Kaupo himself. “Written accompaniment is often a requirement of fine-art exhibitions,” he explains, “though I would often ask viewers to view an image alone first and ask what it means to them before taking on the ideas of others in words. That can be the purest way to react.”

Using the Sony Alpha 7R IV, Kaupo admits that he uses the camera “in an unbelievably old fashioned way with manual focus, single frames… therefore my praise is all about the amazing quality of this technology. With a camera like this there are no technical traps that cost you time or render a location usable. You can achieve what you need to so quickly.”

“With its dynamic range and its image quality,” he continues, “you don’t need to worry about adding lights or pushing the ISO. The size of files and purity at higher ISOs means that there are very few restrictions for artists. Some of the exhibition prints are 1.5m long. And they’re shot at ISO 800 with no worry about noise. For a magazine cover sized print you can work at 3200 without a problem. For a half a page, it’s 6400 – amazing!”

That quality is matched by the Alpha lenses he uses, says Kaupo. “I want to give some praise to lenses, too, because when you’re making these big prints, it’s extremely demanding on the optics. Photography has always been produced at large scale, but never at the quality a lens like the FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM can produce.”

Whatever its length in planning, or efficiency in execution, a project still needs to end, and that’s as much a creative decision as any other part. “This is true for any visual artist, musician or writer. You are always telling a story, putting things together, but you need a signal that it’s finished. In any solo project you argue with yourself a lot. You’re the prosecutor and the defendant and the judge and you need to decide on the ending. In this case, the very last picture of the exhibition was ‘Angel of Conclusion.’ Ironically, that image of sunlight through clouds was one of the least planned of them all. It just appeared as it was needed. A real gift from nature.”