Helsinki Photo Festival

Alvar Aalto Reimagined by Nicola Fioravanti

Rafa — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 02:22:41 +0000

Helsinki Photo Festival in partnership with Oddspace Gallery, proudly presents the world premiere exhibition of Alvar Aalto Reimagined by Italian photographer Nicola Fioravanti. Alvar Aalto Reimagined returns to the places where the life and work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto took shape, looking beyond the architecture itself to the people, relationships and memories that inhabited it.

Photographed at the Aalto House and Aalto Studio in Helsinki, and the Experimental House in Muuratsalo, the project revisits episodes from Aalto’s personal and professional world, bringing into view the architects, collaborators, family members and friends whose lives intersected within these spaces.

Rather than attempting to reconstruct the past, Fioravanti transforms these fragments into staged photographic tableaux, where documented events coexist with imagined moments. History becomes less a fixed narrative than a space of possibility, allowing gestures, tensions, intimacies and absences to surface within the architecture. The photographs do not claim to recover what has been lost, but explore what might still be imagined from the traces that remain.

In Alvar Aalto Reimagined, architecture becomes more than a physical structure or a setting for historical representation. It emerges as a repository of memory, human relationships and lived experience, a place where the boundaries between the documented and the imagined, the past and the present, remain open to interpretation.

This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Alvar Aalto Foundation and Aalto2 – Museum Centre, who opened the architect’s spaces to a new form of visual imagination. Alvar Aalto Reimagined by Nicola Fioravanti is curated by Rafael Rybczynski.

The opening vernissage in presence of Nicola Fioravanti will take place 25 November, 2026 from 17:00-21:00 in Oddspace Gallery, Teollisuuskatu 9D, Vallila, 00510 Helsinki.

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Helsinki Photo Festival 2026

Rafa — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:11:51 +0000

The upcoming edition of Helsinki Photo Festival is scheduled to run from November 24 to December 15, 2026, featuring new exhibitions by five internationally acclaimed artists. In collaboration with Oddspace Gallery, the festival will host the world premiere of Alvar Aalto Reimagined, a show by Italian photographer Nicola Fioravanti. Shot on location at the Aalto House, Aalto Studio, and the Muuratsalo Experimental House, the project explores the intersection of Alvar Aalto’s personal and professional spheres. Through Fioravanti's lens, the spaces come alive with the memories of the architects, collaborators, and loved ones who shaped Aalto's world.

Primordia, a complete series by Mexican photographer Fernando Montiel Klint, debuts to offer a rare look at the hidden architecture of living matter. Through scanning electron microscope images, the collection reveals the intricate microstructures of a feather, a tardigrade, seeds, and pollen grains—organic topographies normally invisible to the naked eye. By digitally colorizing these originally monochrome, scientific documents, the artist transforms them into a captivating "cartography of the invisible."

Norwegian photo artist Stig Marlon Weston's project 1 to 1 transforms raw memories into physical art, leaving the final interpretation to the viewer's imagination. Made entirely without a camera, Weston’s distinctive art was produced by capturing the movements and shadows of a couple making love directly onto sheets of film in a darkroom. Moving away from the original exhibition's side-by-side textile display, this series digitally mounts the twin images together on a sleek grey background, uniting the lovers in a single, continuous frame.

Sari Soininen introduces a new collection of works in “The Shape of Things Unseen”. Characterized by vibrant, dreamlike imagery, the work of Finnish fine art photographer Sari Soininen explores rich, atmospheric visual worlds. Through her deliberate use of color gels, flash, and long exposure techniques, she builds alternative realities in real-time, blurring the lines between perception, symbolism, and the unseen. Her artistic practice is grounded in philosophical inquiry and esoteric traditions, drawing inspiration from personal mystical experiences that actively question and broaden conventional reality.

Svante Gullichsen's practice centers on mental health-focused self-portraiture set within powerful, mystical Nordic atmospheres. At the core of Gullichsen’s work is an exploration of mental health struggles, the journey of finding one's place while growing up queer, the connection between humanity and nature, and the fundamental interplay of darkness and light. Gullichsen’s exhibition “All in vanities” debuts new and earlier-made works.

During the three week event Helsinki Photo Festival’s programming will arrange artist-talks, seminars, portfolio reviews, exhibitions and an art fair. Helsinki Photo Festival’s Christmas Art Fair will open, December 13 from 10-8pm.

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Helsinki Photo Festival’s Christmas Art Fair

Rafa — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 01:28:52 +0000

Circumstances such as severe cutting of our cultural grants have led us to put brakes on producing photography festivities in Helsinki during the summer of 2024. Moreover, to scale down our costs we decided to shut down our storage space.

Save the date! 22 November – 22 December, 2024 in Keran Hallit in Espoo.

Now we are selling out on Helsinki Photo Festival’s Christmas Art Fair. Unique art works and limited edition prints of Finnish artists Svante Gullichsen, Sari Soininen and Tomas Olsen. Also, many works from international photographers like American David Lynch, Canadian Arianne Clément, Swedish Florence Montmare, British Tom Price amongst many more. In addition, we will sell unique banners, books, posters, t-shirts and tote bags, ensuring visitors find something special to bring home for the holiday season.

Helsinki Photo Festival’s Christmas Art Fair isn’t just any art sale — it’s an event designed for both passionate collectors and curious shoppers.

In collaboration with Hidalko we will present on the art fair’s opening night a new product: Helphoto hop water.

All art works were cataloged. Send us a mail to request the fair’s price list. info@helsinkiphotofestival.com

Opening hours: Wednesday – Friday: 12 -18h, Saturday 12-18 h or by appointment.

#artfair #joulumarkkinat #photography #valokuvaus #visualart #espoo #helsinki #hopwater #keranhallit #finland #kulttuuriespoo #hidalkoliquor

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Sakset seis! Stop cuts in culture and art

Rafa — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 01:51:36 +0000

The Finnish Government announces severe cuts to arts and culture funding. Please support activities of Finland’s cultural and arts sectors now. For more information (in Finnish only): www.saksetseis.fi

Situation explained by YLE – Finnish Broadcasting Company
https://yle.fi/a/74-20113399

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Virtual Gallery kickoff

Rafa — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 21:52:44 +0000

Start your art collection with Selected Darlings edition

Photography transcends mere image capture. It serves as a means of immortalising moments, emotions, and narratives. Beyond its artistic and sentimental value, investing in photography presents distinctive opportunities and benefits. It fosters a connection to the artistic zeitgeist, while holding the potential for financial growth, and appreciation. The exclusivity of owning a limited edition print enhances its value and desirability, rendering it an appealing prospect for investment.

In our continuous pursuit to engage global audiences, in 2021, we embarked on yet another ambitious venture. With support from the Nordisk Kulturfond, we initiated a limited edition print program designed to empower Nordic artists to showcase and market their works to collectors and art enthusiasts worldwide.

Since its inception, our program has attracted a cohort of exceptionally talented emerging artists from the Nordic region, complemented by a select few international luminaries. These artists have garnered recognition through exhibitions at esteemed galleries, museums, and prestigious photography festivals, solidifying their status as promising talents in the global art scene.

These are just a few of the esteemed artists we collaborated with through our limited edition program: Florence Montmare, Sari Soininen, Angelika Kollin, Svante Gullichsen, Oscar Alvarado, Jooeun Bae, Carl-Mikael Ström, Dilla Djalil-Daniel, Anne Lass, Stig Marlon Weston, Tom Price, and Maria Kjartans. These photographers have been prominently featured in renowned publications such as Time, The Guardian, Die Zeit, FT Weekend, British Journal of Photography, Liberte, Helsingin Sanomat, and many others. Currently, photographic artist Sari Soininen's work is being exhibited at the Lahti Museum of Visual Arts MALVA from November 3, 2023, to April 7, 2024. In addition, Angelika Kollin's long-term project "Parenthood" has been chosen as a finalist for the prestigious Sony World Photography Award 2024. Furthermore, Svante Gullichsen's work is set to be featured at Tallinn's Fotografiska in the spring of 2024.

The limited edition works of these esteemed artists, along with many others we have proudly collaborated with, have already been acquired by prestigious private and public collections spanning across Germany, France, Finland, the United States, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.

Our collection of limited edition prints featuring the talented artists mentioned above is truly captivating! To showcase this exclusive collection, we curated a travelling group exhibition titled "Selected Darlings", which previously graced renowned venues such as the world's oldest auction house, Stockholms Auktionsverk in Sweden, as well as Finlandia Hall and West Terminal t1 in Helsinki, Finland.

Now, proudly in collaboration with Arilyn's Virtual Art Galleries, we are presenting the whole exhibition virtually, accessible through any internet browser anywhere. Prints are available framed and unframed in two different sizes. Note that once editions sell out, we will not produce any reprints.

You can experience the virtual exhibition “Selected Darlings” via the link below: www.visit.virtualartgallery.com/helphoto-selected-darlings

Please note that our webshop has moved to www.holvi.com/shop/helphoto

#limitededitions #collectors #fineart #helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto24 #aware #photography #helsinki #taide #valokuvataide #konst #opetus #arilyn #virtual #newmedia #virtualartgallery

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Membership Program Launch

Rafa — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 21:54:32 +0000

“The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice." Brian Herbert

After many requests to organise educational events more often, we are now introducing a new membership program every month.

Helsinki Photo Festival is a community which has grown over the years to a well connected network of photo enthusiasts and photographers. Our Membership program provides opportunities to learn new things about photography, visit inspiring photo exhibitions, and make good lasting memories.

Our first FolioMeet (Portfolio Review) is scheduled for February 3 from 11am-2pm. The location we will confirm once we know how many have signed up. We have various suitable partners in downtown Helsinki we can chose for ths educational event.

FolioMeet is a free, monthly portfolio review group for members. This program provides members, both emerging and established, with the opportunity to discuss their work in a casual and supportive environment with members and a guest artist, writer, curator or other professionals from the Helsinki arts community.

The review is run like a group critique: Each participant has 20 minutes to share a project and receive feedback from the reviewer and the rest of the group. Before the review, participant should prepare 5-20 images from a single body of work that is nearing completion as well as a few questions to guide discussion.

You can join our community and review our membership benefits on our membership section.

Membership Program:
www.helsinkiphotofestival.com/memberships

Membership Benefits:
www.helsinkiphotofestival.com/member-benefits

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto24 #aware #photography #helsinki #helsinkiart #education #taide #valokuvaus #valokuvataide #konst #opetus

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Extending the scope into books

Rafa — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 20:14:38 +0000

Helsinki Photo Festival is honoured to announce bringing the Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards to Helsinki in 2024.

During Paris Photo this November, Aperture declared the winners of the 2023 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards—the eleventh annual celebration of the photobook’s contributions to the evolving narrative of photography.

The award recognizes excellence in three major categories of photobook publishing: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalog of the Year.

The final round of the 2023 PhotoBook Awards was juried by:
Laia Abril, artist
Tamara Berghmans, curator, Fotomuseum Antwerpen (FOMU)
Alexis Fabry, curator and founder of Toluca Fine Art
Alona Pardo, curator, Barbican
Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph and Professor of Photography Rights and Representation at University of the Arts London

The exhibition of the thirty-five books shortlisted for the 2023 PhotoBook Awards will travel to Printed Matter in New York City (US), from January through February 2024, and then to international venues, including presentations at the Helsinki Photo Festival and Photo Australia Melbourne, among others.

Read more about the thirty-five selected coming for the exhibition to Helsinki.
https://aperture.org/editorial/a-look-inside-the-titles-shortlisted-for-the-2023-photobook-awards/

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Helsinki Photo News 3rd edition is out!

Rafa — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 05:10:41 +0000

Helsinki Photo News magnifies photography. The new Journal of Contemporary Photography introduces 50 International emerging artists and iconic David Lynch.

The magazine covers all artists and projects Helsinki Photo Festival has produced during 2023. Our Journal of Contemporary photography introduces 50 International emerging artists and iconic David Lynch.

Polycopies & Co book fair helped us to distribute the publication to festival-goers during Paris Photo 23 in France. Now Helsinki Photo News is finally released in Finland! Get your rare copy now. The magazine can be found at University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Hanken - School of Economics, University of the Arts Helsinki, Cafe Gastro, Fotonordic Helsinki and many more places.

The magazine features following artists:
Rebecca Bowring (CH); Chantal Pinzi (IT); JJ Lorenzo (ES); Lys Arango (ES); Sitara Thalia Ambrosio (DE); Uschi Groos (DE); Alon Skuy (ZA); Annamaria Belloni (IT); Byron Smith (US); Verena Andrea Prenner (AT); Hendra Eka (ID); Emanuele Occhipinti (IT); Julia Wimmerlin (UA); Filippo Venturi (IT); Robin Hinsch (DE); Giles Clarke (UK); Pierpaolo Mittica (IT); Alisa Martynova (RU); Yannis Zindrilis (GR); Seok-Woo Song (KR); Ernst Coppejans (NL); Ingeborg Everaerd (NL); Beniamino Pisati (IT); Alice Mann (ZA); Karianne Bueno (NL); Cindy Blažević (CA); Alan Gignoux (US); Magda Gibelli (VE); Elisa Mariotti (IT); Alain Schroeder (BE); Catherine Lemblé (BE); Sarah Mei Herman (NL); Fernanda Soto Mastrantonio (CL); Antonio Pérez (ES); Florence Goupil (PE); Laara Dashti (FR); Thomas Victor (DE); Natalya Saprunova (RU) and Patrick Junker & Jonathan Terlinden (DE-FI).

Nordic Village features work of the Nordic artists Björn Nilsson (Sweden), Rolf-Göran Åström (Sweden), Sofi Lundin (Sweden, based in Uganda), Emmi Roosling (Sweden), Maija Bondar (Finland), Mikkel Hørlyck (Denmark), Maja Nydal Eriksen (Denmark), Haakon Sand (Norway), Aija Svensson (Finland) and Darina Rodionova (Finland).

The magazine is available as a physical print (68 pages, 272 grams. Price: 7 €) and digital edition. The digital version will be positioned as a premium product to be released on a subscription platform in the UK spring 2024.

Helsinki Photo Festival ry is a non-profit association created to attract interest and disseminate information on photography and visual culture in Finland and abroad.

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Major exhibition at Sanoma House

Rafa — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 05:28:18 +0000

Breaking news! We delighted to announce that all the winners of the open call competition themed Courage will be exhibited at the Sanoma House from October 4-29, 2023. Free entry.

Sanoma House is open Mon-Fri from 7am to 8pm, Sat-Sun from 9 am to 8 pm.

We live in turbulent times: climate change, pandemic, war, and constant violation of human rights. All this calls for courage. Courage can come in many forms, whether it be the ability to face pain or grief with strength or the quality shown by those who take risks and face danger. According to the jury member Emanula Mirabelli, “courage is the primary engine to fight injustices all over the world and to conquer new achievements for everyone”.

Opening October 4, 2023 at 5 p.m.

The opening ceremony inaugurated by the Artistic Director of the festival Rafael Rybczynski, and speeches by renowned scholar and photographer Stefan Bremer and groundbreaking talent Svante Gullichsen.

The exhibition is supported by Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

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Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. More info on artists, exhibitions and events: www.helsinkiphotofestival.com

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto23 #courage #photography #photographers #sanomatalo #artexhibition #contemporaryart #nordicvillage #helsinki #finland #taide #valokuvaus #valokuvataide #konst #discoverfinland

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Nordic Seminar 2023

Rafa — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 04:09:33 +0000

Helsinki Photo Festival’s educational highlight of the year, the annual Nordic seminar with prominent Nordic visual artists, curators, photography teachers, photo editors, gallerists and writers will be organised on September 29, 2023.

Language: English

SEMINAR SPEAKERS

🇩🇰 Søren Pagter (DK) – Head of Photojournalism education, Danish School of Media and Journalism
🇩🇰 Mikkel Hørlyck (DK) – Photojournalist and visual artist
🇸🇪 Dr. Wiktoria Michałkiewicz (SE/PL) – Curator, writer, journalist & artist agent
🇳🇴 Dr. Antonio Cataldo (NO) – Artistic Director, Fotogalleriet Foundation, Oslo
🇫🇮 Susanna Luoto (FI) – Curator, Gallery Heino. Independent producer and writer
🇮🇸 Krummi (IS) – Icelandic photographer, one of five Futures Nordic Talents

Time: 10:00-16:00
Place: ANNANTALO – ARTS CENTRE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
www.annantalo.fi

Program
The event starts with registration at 9.30, and the seminar program is 10-16, incl. lunch and breaks for coffee.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
9.30 Coffee and registration
10.00 Start of the seminar program
12.30–13.30 Lunch
16.00 End of the seminar

Registration and fees
EARLY BIRD https://tinyurl.com/47snmuxn
The registration for on-site attendance ends at midnight on Thursday, 28th of September, 2023.
Price: 29 Euros.

STUDENT https://tinyurl.com/3u2rptxv
The registration for attendance for students is discounted. Students need to show their valid student card upon purchase
Price: 17 euros.

NORMAL TICKET https://tinyurl.com/yfr25wtz
The registration is at the door on Friday, 29th of September, 2023.
Price: 34 Euros.

UNDER 15 for free https://tinyurl.com/3sffvme6
For attendance under the age of 15, the entrance fee is free.

! Please note that registration is binding and that the participation fee is not refundable. If you get an obstacle, your registration can be moved to another person!

The seminar is supported by Kulturfonden för Finland och Denmark, Kulturfonden för Finland och Norge, Kulturfonden Island-Finland and Sparbanksstiftelsen Esbo-Grankulla. The Nordic Seminar is a project by Helsinki Photo Festival.

#seminar #education #photography #nordic #valokuvaus #networking #helphoto23 #helsinkiphotofestival #annantalo #helsinki #finland #denmark #norway #iceland #sweden

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