INSTAGRAM - Helsinki Photo Festival

helsinkiphotofestival

Our next exhibition in Espoo opened last week at K

Our next exhibition in Espoo opened last week at Keran Hallit with new outstanding photo stands aimed to display large prints. We proudly present selected images of 10 of the most popular voted artists now in 3x2m prints.

The new photo displays with seating opportunity were designed by talented Anastasia Kravchenko, MA student at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture showcasing a new way how to experience photography outdoors. All exhibited artists information is available in English, Finnish and Swedish. Just scan QR code on each exhibition panel or visit our website.

The exhibition at Keran Hallit can be seen until September 30th. The warehouse halls are easily reachable by taking the U-train from Helsinki central railway station.

Featured Artists
Carla Kogelman / NL
Ryan Carter / CA
Matjaz Tancic / SI
Susana Girón / ES
Felix Schöppner / DE
Christian Bobst / CH
Linda Bournane Engelberth / DZ-NO
Charlotte Lakits / FR
Tom Price / UK
Cletus Nwadike / NG-SE

#photography #exhibitions #espoo #finland #helphoto21 #helsinkiphotofestival #kultuuriespoo #innovation #design

At the Art Wall of the cultural centre Stoa in Eas

At the Art Wall of the cultural centre Stoa in East Helsinki, 23 international artists are exhibited with selected images from this year's theme 'Fearless'.

The outdoor exhibition can be enjoyed around the clock and be admired free of charge.

The outdoor exhibition can be admired until August 29th, 2021.

FEATURED ARTISTS
Felix Schöppner / DE
Matjaz Tancic / SI
Jake Eshelman / US
Alex McBride / UK
Kristen Joy Emack / US
He Bo / CN
Noelle Mason / US
Natalia Kepesz / PL
Paola Jimenez / PE
Christian Bobst / CH
Cletus Nwadike / NG-SE
Carlotta Guerra / IT
Laura J. Bennett / US
Susana Girón / ES
Rebecca Simons / FI
Alessio Maximilian Schroder / IT
Siri Ekker Svendsen / NO
Róbert László Bácsi / HU
Oğulcan Arslan / TR
Charlotte Mano / FR
Kai Yokoyama / JP
Charlotte Mariën / BE

#photography #exhibition #helsinki #itäkeskus #valokuvaus #finland

In collaboration with the Ebeneser Foundation - th

In collaboration with the Ebeneser Foundation - the Kindergarten Museum, Helsinki Photo Festival is hosting a curated photography exhibition specifically for children on a 150m long wall fence.

Spectators can admire unique works around the clock and free of charge at Helsinginkatu in Sörnainen. The outdoor exhibition will be on display until September 30th, 2021.

Featured Artists:
Felix Schöppner / DE
Matjaz Tancic / SI
Jake Eshelman / US
Kristen Joy Emack / US
Ingeborg Everaerd / NL
Maria de la Paz Gutierrez / AR
Gabriele Cecconi / IT
R.J. Kern / US
Charlotte Lakits / FR
Laura Pannack / UK
Christian Bobst / CH
Cletus Nwadike / NG-SE
Sabine Findeisen / DE
Tom Price / UK
Susana Girón / ES
Peter Pflügler / AT
Cristiano Volk / IT
Róbert László Bácsi / HU
Arnaud Montagard / FR
Thomas Victor & Felix Adler / DE
Jooeun Bae / KR
Linda Bournane Engelberth / NO
Natalia Kepesz / PL

#photography #exhibition #helsinki #valokuvaus #finland

For the first time ever, the classic Helsinki Swim

For the first time ever, the classic Helsinki Swimming stadium (Uimastadion), hosts a photo exhibition.

The works of all international 50 open call finalists on the festival's theme Fearless can be explored. Uimastadion is a popular place, and on summer days it is visited by about 5,000 swimmers a day. To visit the exhibition spectators must purchase a ticket to the place of recreation.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto21 #helsinki #finland #photography #exhibition #recreation #nikoneurope

In front of the iconic Finlandia House in downtown

In front of the iconic Finlandia House in downtown Helsinki, the works of all international 50 open call finalists on the festival's theme Fearless can be explored.

The festival’s first portfolio review winner of 2020, Spanish David Barreiro solo exhibition with the project “A Breach of Margins” can also be seen and discovered.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto21 #photography #curatorselection #exhibition #helsinki #finland

Impressions from the inauguration event of the Nor

Impressions from the inauguration event of the Nordic Village with emerging photographers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. Also, Helsinki Photo Festival presents in collaboration with Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture a new way how to experience photography. All exhibited artists information is available in English, Finnish and Swedish. More informations to other exhibitions will follow soon #helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto21 #hanaholmen #espoo

Helsinki Photo Festival fourth edition opens July

Helsinki Photo Festival fourth edition opens July 7 for the public

Helsinki Photo Festival is a visual arts event focused on photography opening for the public July 7 and ends September 30. The fourth edition on the theme Fearless to be exhibited in the whole metropolitan area. The event is held annually and brings a new art experience to Greater Helsinki. In a period of 12 weeks curated photography exhibitions can be discovered 24/7 in public spaces and at cultural institutions. The festival will present the works of 62 artists from 30 countries with new works which have not been shown before in Finland.

Every year the festival selects +50 open call winners from different genres. The contest is judged by a jury of leading experts in photography and education. In 2021, the festival received 428 submissions with 5307 images from 55 countries of which the international jury selected 50 international open call winners and ten Nordic emerging talents.

In Helsinki, prime outdoor exhibitions are in the garden area of the iconic Finlandia Hall (accessible from Mannerheimintie), the classic open air swimming stadium Uimastadion, Ebeneser Kindergarten Museum in Sörnainen and in the Cultural Centre Stoa in Itäkeskus. On the border of Helsinki and Espoo worth mentioning is a Nordic photo exhibition taking place at Hanasaaren Taidepuisto.

The festival program includes various exhibitions and pedagogical events throughout a period of twelve weeks, inviting photo enthusiasts of all ages from any gender, race or class. Since its founding in 2018, the festival has welcomed more than one million spectators. The edition of 2021 can be experienced mostly outdoors, with due regard to current covid safety precautions. Most exhibitions are accessible free of charge.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto21 #helsinki #myhelsinki #finland #photography #valokuvaus

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
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Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Korjaamo Culture Factory, Kaapeli, Cultural Centre Stoa, Pyhän Birgitan puisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Heikki Humberg, Finland
@heikkihumberg Rooms of Truth

The photographic series Rooms of Truth takes a closer look behind closed doors of police interrogation rooms around Europe. The attempt to reach justice and truth is summarized in these spaces, where people are forced to interact. The rooms are being recorded by several cameras, other that of the photographer. Every gesture is interpreted for the prospect of truth.

John Steinbeck wrote: “There's more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.” Upon entering the room, one is greeted by a lonely chair in the corner. The door closes behind. Senses grow sharper, as one observes this space void of people. A slight breeze from an open window clatters the blinds against iron bars. Light flickers through. One could almost call this cozy, but the moment is interrupted by the foreign language of the police in the corridor. The placement of the furniture reflects the subtle difference of power. Hundreds of human fates have passed through these rooms: The boyfriends, the neighbors, the mothers, the lovers, the bosses, the police, the children, the foreigners… The room is a canvas for their stories, and small marks can be found on the surfaces.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Heikki Humberg is a photographer born in 1981 in Kärkölä, Finland. He is currently working on his MA in Photography Studies at Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture in Helsinki. Humberg has previously held solo exhibitions in Finland and Ireland and has participated in group exhibitions in Finland and abroad. He has received grants from Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Paulo Foundation and Frame Contemporary Art Finland. The photographer currently lives and works in Helsinki.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
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Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Kaapeli, Cultural Centre Stoa, Sörnäistenlaituri, Karhupuisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Tom Atwood, United States
@tomatwoodphoto Kings & Queens in Their Castles

Kings & Queens in Their Castles has been called one of the most ambitious photo series ever conducted of the LGBTQ experience in the USA. Over 15 years, Atwood photographed more than 350 subjects nationwide, including nearly 100 celebrities. With individuals from 30 states, Atwood offers a window into the lives and homes of some of America's most intriguing and eccentric personalities, by photographing them at home in their trusted private spaces. Modern day tableaux vivants, the images portray whimsical, intimate moments of daily life that shift between the pictorial and the theatrical. Alongside creatives such as artists, fashion designers, writers, actors, directors, music makers and dancers, the series features business leaders, politicians, journalists, activists and religious leaders. It includes those who keep civilization running, such as farmers, beekeepers, doctors, chefs, bartenders and innkeepers. Some miscellaneous athletes, students, professors, drag queens and socialites. As well as a cartoonist, barista, poet, comedian, navy technician, paleontologist and transgender cop. Also showcased are urban bohemians, beatniks, mavericks and iconoclasts, many of whom blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s but seem to be slowly disappearing.

Tom Atwood's recent work has focused on portraits of people at home. He has shot over 100 luminaries. Atwood won Photographer of the Year from London's Worldwide Photography Gala Awards, as well as first place in Portraiture. He won first place in Portraiture in the Prix de la Photographie Paris. And he was included in the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Triennial (Smithsonian Museum) and many more.

#helsinkiphotofestival

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
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Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Korjaamo Culture Factory, Kaapeli, Cultural Centre Stoa, and JCDecaux Finland.

Noel Bowler, Ireland @noelbowler
Above the Fold

Above the Fold is a series of photographs taken in some of the most respected and recognised newspaper newsrooms from around the globe. Made over a six-year period and working together with a cross section of some of the largest newspapers (by paid circulation), these photographs take the viewer on a journey through decades of human interaction that has helped to form the foundation of the press as we know it. Today, the work of the newspaper and journalism movement has never been so relevant for so many throughout the world.

This timely work continues Noel Bowler’s on-going consideration of the political forces that shape our lives and the importance in sustaining the foundation of a free and trustworthy press. Ever since the rapid increase in literacy rates during the 19th century, newspapers have been inextricably associated with the development of modern society through the production of political meta-narratives, the dissemination of information and the framing of debate. With declining readership, reduced advertising and persistent questions about “truth” and relevance, the structures of print media are in a state of flux. Unlike the multifaceted and dispersed nature of online news media, the physical space of the newspaper office has been shaped by many years of evolution, adaptation and work practices that straddle both public-interest rationales and commercial objectives.

Above the Fold reinforces the importance that people have played in the role of print news media and acts as a reminder of both the importance and pertinence of the journalist. These photographs offer us an insight into the places where the decisions and policies that affect so many are created. While these places may be separated by geography, culture and politics, they are all inherently linked by one fundamental attribute: The commitment to inform, educate and reinforce the importance of a free and honest press.

#helsinkiphotofestival

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
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Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Cultural Centre Stoa, Karhupuisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Kamil Matziol, Poland @kamil.matziol
Hidden Subject

The project Hidden Subject is a series of photographs depicting Kamil’s self-portraits. In each photograph, the only evidence of the artist’s presence is a red pneumatic air release with which Kamil connects to his camera by releasing the shutter. It is also a tip for the viewer where to find the subject of photography/self portrait. With this kind of action the artist attempts to draw the viewer into his game, based on one basic principle. The viewer must believe that he really is there. For as long as people trust him to be the author, Kamil’s intentions are fulfilled.

“Trust is knowledge and faith in action. It is the fulfillment of our expectations towards the object, the subject. The medium of photography has a special ability to distort truth. Photography owes the power to visually fabricate and re-narrate its subject matter into a seemingly truthful story even though the reality is often contradictory. People strive for trust, people need hope. Meanwhile, they are being continuously cheated.” Matziol

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Kamil Matziol’s statement photographs serve as a testimony for the existence of a point in space that is constantly changing. They enable observation of something invisible and ephemeral. By taking photographs he equally enables himself to depict a sense of reality that has already passed. In his personal opinion, people themselves form an image that somehow reflects on an interpretation of reality. Kamil is fascinated by the fact that viewers tend to trust what they see. They often identify their own experiences with the stories they observe in images which ultimately affects and redirects their thoughts in a certain direction. The artist attempts to create photographs that reflect that sum of feelings. His projects consist of a series of images in which the main subject matter are human beings and their existence. He chooses to create those situations that are not always comfortable or functional.

#helsinkiphotofestival

Big thank you 👏👏👏 to The Nordic Culture F

Big thank you 👏👏👏 to The Nordic Culture Fund for funding our international and domestic plans for “Nordic Village - a visual art talent platform and limited edition print program”

During our upcoming fourth edition of Helsinki Photo Festival beginning July 7 and ending September 30.

Hanaholmen – Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre will host the Nordic Village, a talent platform fostered by Helsinki Photo Festival to support emerging Nordic photographers to present their works to a broad audience.

A Nordic photo exhibition will take place outdoors at Hanasaaren Taidepuisto (Hanaholmen Art Park) presenting a group expose with emerging 15 Nordic photographers and the solo exhibition of the emerging Finnish talent Svante Gullichsen with a set of his new works in the Nordic Village.

A seminar with focus on Nordic photography with distinguished visual artists, curators, photography teachers, authors and editors will be organised on August 27. Nordic experts include Hannu Vanhanen (Backlight Photo Festival), Kristyna Müller (CFF - Centrum för fotografi), Pål Otnes (Forlaget Fotografi), Sigrún Alba Sigurðardóttir (Iceland University of Arts) and Fryd Frydendahl (Fatamorgana Photo School) and many more.

Stockholms Auktionsverk, the Nordic region’s largest auction platform, will trade Helsinki Photo Festival‘s limited edition prints. A selection of works by Nordic and international artists to be offered for sale will be exhibited in the Auction House from August 23-29 (Mon-Fri, open 9-17 and Saturday 11-15) at Eteläranta 14 in the south harbour area in Helsinki. Auction date is set for August 29.

We welcome everybody and the exhibition is safe for spectators.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto21 #nordicphotography #nordiskkulturfond #stockholmauktionsverk

Winner Open Call Nordic Village platform, Helsinki

Winner Open Call Nordic Village platform, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
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Various artworks of the artist were exhibited at the National Museum of Finland and JCDecaux Finland.

Hans Jørgen Ro, Norway @hansjorgenro
Saturn Return

Saturn orbits the sun every 29.5 years. In modern Western astrology, Saturn is called the “Taskmaster”. Some people believe that as the planet returns to the same constellation it once was at their birth, it brings darker times. During these dark times, Hans recalls not being able to connect with the outside world. He could not see the world the same way he used to before. All of his senses were amplified to the point where even the softest touch to his face was uncomfortably intense. Other times the artist felt pure emptiness. Situations in which he would usually thrive he observed indifferently. The artist’s only goal was to get better but at that point, he had no idea what was going on. At age of 28, Hans burnt out completely and for the first time in his life, he experienced depression and anxiety.

Stories are very important to humans. Our reality is almost entirely constructed by them. Stories help people to cope with complex issues by simplifying them into neat narratives. “Frozen Man” is a character that Hans based on a stranger who died of hypothermia and whom he decided to photograph at the Central Subway Station in Oslo. The artist captured the man’s neat haircut and immaculate suit as he was staring into the void surrounded by plain concrete. He seemed small, and in his gaze, Hans saw his own personal crisis unfolding. Whilst encountering depression and anxiety, photography turned out to be more than just a hobby for Hans. The photograph of ‘Frozen Man’ essentially inspired the artist to produce his latest project Saturn Return in which he revisits his emotional burnout and explores his own problems with anxiety and depression. Saturn Return is a story of what the photographer found. He always trusted that everything will be OK. That trust in the world, and in himself dissolved in the overwhelming tides of his personal burnout.

Hans Jørgen Ro is a student of photography from Oslo, Norway.

#helphoto20

Winner Open Call Nordic Village platform, Helsinki

Winner Open Call Nordic Village platform, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Various artworks of the artist were exhibited at the National Museum of Finland and JCDecaux Finland.

Magnus Cederlund, Sweden @magnuscederlund
Intime

Cafe Intime is the oldest gay bar located in the center of Copenhagen. Intime feels like entering a living room filled with old paintings, furniture and fresh flowers. The interior of the bar has been influenced by the life at Montmartre and Under den Linden in the 1920s. It's the place where people take their first date for a drink whilst listening to jazz. The artist Magnus Cederlund has been visiting this place for the past seven years, photographing random guests for his future photo book. The series Intime, however, only displays a specifically chosen selection of photographs from the bar, depicting the trans gender community.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Magnus Coderlund is a Swedish artist who has been living and working in Copenhagen, Denmark for the past 30 years. Coderlund’s first book SKIN CLOSE was published by journal-photobooks.com in 2018. The artist is currently working on his second photo book Cafe Intime that is soon going to be released by Journal. Coderlund has been exhibiting his photographic work both locally and internationally since 1989. His latest achievements include for example a photography exhibition at Fotografiska, Stockholm in 2018 and Tevere Art Gallery, Rome in 2019 and Copenhagen Photo Festival in 2021

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20 #trust #swedishphotographer

Winner Open Call Nordic Village platform, Helsinki

Winner Open Call Nordic Village platform, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•

Various artworks of the artist were exhibited at the National Museum of Finland and JCDecaux Finland.

Renja Nurmi, Finland @renjaeerika
Modern Faith

“Jos mä en olis 100%:n varma tästä, niin mä en ikinä tekis näin (If I weren't 100% certain about all of this, I would never do something like this).”

Modern Faith is a photo reportage about the modern Christian faith. In her series of photographs, Renja Nurmi has documented how faith, trust and caring are visible in a modern Christian church. The mainstream Finnish Evangelical Lutheran church doesn’t often attract youth or people under the age of forty but small and quite new independent churches like the one that can be seen in Renja’s series, attract them more. At the Sunday gathering of Northwind Church most of the people are in their twenties and thirties, they sing modern gospel songs, dance, worship with hands raised and the atmosphere is very different from the traditional Finnish churches.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Renja Nurmi is a photographer and graphic designer working mainly in the field of journalism. Her series Modern Faith was created as part of a photo reportage course that Renja took during her Visual Journalism studies in Tampere University. Religions, spirituality and the emotional togetherness in religious communities have always fascinated her, and the artist feels that the spiritual side of people's lives in this modern world isn't represented and talked about enough.

#nordicvillage #helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20 #trust #finnishphotographer

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Cultural Centre Stoa, Pyhän Birgitan puisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Mary Gelman, Russia @marygelman
Svetlana

In Russia, people have a lot of prejudice toward people with mental disorders. They are not considered full-fledged people with abilities to learn and socialize, they stay unemployed. But there is a place, where everything is different. Where trust and respect for each other is a core of a community. Svetlana is a unique social village in Russia, Leningrad Oblast. This village gives an opportunity to people with different mental disorders to live free and be supported by tutors and volunteers. This place is not a boarding school or a clinic. No one is controlled and the doors are always opened. Diagnoses are not discussed; residents are not classified as healthy or unhealthy, normal or abnormal. They are all individuals, working to their potential. Residents believe in the person you can become in spite of your past. Svetlana is a community of nearly 35 residents. They live in four large houses, have a garden, a farm, a bakery, a carpentry etc. Villagers are served five meals a day, visit sauna on weekends and do the plays on holidays. People with special needs are free to go out, work, have friends and fall in love. They can realize themselves in any employment or creative activities. For example, at first some residents could not even hold a spoon, but now bake bread for all the inhabitants of the village or get engaged in the performances.

Mary Gelman is a VII Photo Agency Member photographer based in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. In 2016 she graduated from School of Modern Photography in Saint Petersburg and participated in various international and local workshops. Mary works as a photojournalist and teacher. The most important part of her professional life are her personal projects. The artist explores the larger world through close personal narratives. She focuses on a study of issues of gender and body, boundary and identity, discrimination and the human relationship with the environment.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20 #trust

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Cultural Centre Stoa, Karhupuisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Huang Qingjun, China
Family Stuff

Following his belief that everybody has their own captivating story to tell, the photographer Huang Quingjun decided to photograph a group of interestingly looking people in 2019. This particular project was a sub-branch of Huang Qingjun’s main project Family Stuff for which the artist spent 16 years photographing a total of 102 families.

In his Family Stuff project, Huang Qingjun asked families to gather all their earthly possessions and display them in their yards in front of their homes. Once all of their belongings were neatly laid down on the grass, the artist began to photograph the family members in the midst of all their family stuff. These people show Huang a great amount of trust by displaying their family belongings in front of his camera. Huang’s approach was to capture a natural smile and expression on people’s faces. The result was a series of portraits displaying his hosts surrounded by their family belongings in which the artists intended to not only express their emotions but at the same time to depict their living status.

“I believe every personal belonging must have a special connection to the owner”, Huang noted. According to the artist, the family stuff that is clearly documented in his images is penetrating viewers’ gaze. He believes that without it, the audience would have completely ignored some of the material content displayed in his pictures or think very little about it. His aim was to use these photographic images to interfere with our consciousness. Every part of the project is a testament to the faith and condition of life, an evidence of those that have either adapted or remained unchanged during the modernization process. Family Stuff finds the logic of our existence through visual enlightenment, confirming the particular presence of China under the grand global change.

Huang Qingjun (b. 1971) is a professional photographer and contemporary artist from China.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20 #trust

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust

Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Cultural Centre Stoa, Karhupuisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Yolanda del Amo, Spain/US @yolanda.delamo
Refuge

The project Refuge explores the refugee crisis through a sociological prism by focusing on the integration of migrants in Germany after the massive influx in 2015. To confront the images widely seen in the media portraying mostly only masses of migrants or refugees in camps devoid of individuality, Yolanda turns her camera to what happens behind closed doors. The artist chooses to photograph those Germans and refugees who live together under one roof; for example families who have taken in a minor, couples who have formed romantic relationships or flats shared by several roommates. The foundation for these new domestic constellations is a sense of trust between Germans and migrants. In its core lies not only the openness to negotiate differences in people’s day-to-day routines but also the acceptance of unfamiliar foods, cultures and religions. The discourse about immigration often characterizes refugees such as invaders, victims or heroes.

In Yolanda’s photographs, she breaks away from these archetypes and portrays migrants as regular individuals who perform domestic activities with their German roommates. Rather than looking at otherness, Refuge focuses on the togetherness of those individuals who build trust among each other and learn from one another at eye-level. This photo project focuses as much on the German hosts as it does on the refugees. The artist focuses on Germany because of the extraordinary role the country has played in the refugee crisis by accepting astonishing numbers of migrants, more so taking into consideration its history. Refuge offers an optimistic and hopeful perspective on the phenomenon of migration that has previously polarized German and many other societies. Stylistically, Yolanda chose to create staged photographs in order to raise questions about the social constructs of identity, family, home and gender.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
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Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Cultural Centre Stoa, and JCDecaux Finland

Ciro Battiloro, Italy @cirobattiloro
Santa Lucia

There are places in southern Italy that carry scars of incurable wounds on their walls and on the flesh of their inhabitants. In those wounds lies the historical memory, the real face of human beings. In those wounds grows solitude in its rawest form and love in its most sincere display: It’s in here where it is hidden, escaping the superficiality and the homologation of consumerist society. Ciro’s images are an intimate disclosure of invisible existences, an attempt to recover the meaning of life through relationships, the neighbourhood and the families that inhabit it. Between 1950 and 1970, the city of Cosenza underwent its major demographic and building development, due to the population migrating from rural areas. However, at the same time the decline of the historical center also began. The urban expansion was not regulated and followed the unwritten rules of speculation, corruption and maximum gain. Matters related to economy, university education, general public services were moved to the newer, northern part of the city, together with the richer families. Later, when the public housing neighbourhoods of Via Popilia, Serra Spiga and San Vito were built, the remaining population left the historical center. This second depopulation together with the total neglect from local administrators aggravated the social disadvantages. The district of Santa Lucia in Cosenza's historical center was once the core of city life. Also known as the “lucciole” (prostitutes) district, it is a different entity separated from the city; a parallel world where the decay of its buildings shares the everyday life of its people. Today, the few families and indigenous inhabitants that still live in the Santa Lucia district have chosen tenaciously not to abandon that place which is the guardian of their identity, despite the constant risk of collapsing buildings. Apart from the locals, foreign families live in the district, among which some come from the Roma ethnic group.

#helphoto

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Korjaamo Culture Factory, Tähtitorninvuoren puisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Oskar Alvarado, Spain @oskaralvarado.photography
Where Fireflies Unfold

“The majority of those born in the cities resulting from rural emigration in the 60s and 70s have a common place that unites us: Our parents’ village. Deleitosa is my village. It is located in the province of Cáceres, in the region of Extremadura in Spain. Here my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and other ancestors were, going back through centuries of family genealogy.” Alvarado

Deleitosa was the village in which Eugene Smith chose to realize his photographic essay Spanish Village that was published in the American magazine Life on April 9, 1951. Far from showing the perceptible appearance of Deleitosa or some of the visual references linked to what was a photographic icon of the social and economic backwardness in Spanish rural society, the author's gaze had some subjective nuances linked to a series of experiences, places and memories. Reminiscences that have endured as apparitions in his memory. Images that intermingle episodes that float in the collective imagination with the new realities that coexist in the village. There is an emotional need to trust in the evolution of the territory of which we are part. To explore our identity in the echo of the places that still speak to us or in the absence-presence of people and beings that inhabit them. To conform to a visual interpretation that evokes the mystery that manifests itself in everyday rhythms, in the poetic condition that underlies the strange.

Oskar Alvarado was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. He currently resides in Barcelona where the artist combines his work as a photography teacher with the production of his personal works. Oskar holds a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the Basque Country University. From his university, he later received a grant to develop the photographic project Conexiones based in an artist residence in Arteleku Art Center in San Sebastián.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust

Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Teurastamo, and JCDecaux Finland.

Lauren Forster, UK @laurenforster_photo
God Has No Favourites

God Has No Favourites is an intimate photographic document that explores Lauren family’s response to her mother’s diagnosis of secondary brain cancer until her death August 2018. The artist’s parents were officers in the Salvation Army for 45 years; the majority of those years were served abroad as missionaries in Africa. They moved back to the UK in 2016 when her mother’s cancer spread to the brain and her father became her primary carer. The project in its nature was a therapeutic collaboration for the family and shows the intimate moments shared during this time.

“I hope that the images will reveal the loving and trusting complexion shared among our family whilst also exposing the struggles and pain caused by such an experience”, Lauren expressed. Despite the subject being intensely personal, the images try to transcend this and speak of a more universal narrative about love, family, loss, strength and fragility that any viewer could understand. The artist’s family is a microcosm for this dynamic, occurring all too often within families who are also experiencing much of the same struggle. Subsequently the work is raw, showing a certain vulnerability without aspiring to be sentimental.

Everyone experiences death alone, death separates us from everyone around us and it is an experience that we cannot share with anyone else. Humans have had to face death and mortality since the beginning of time, but our experience of the dying process has changed dramatically in recent history. Death used to be sudden, unexpected and relatively quick, people did not fear death as much as they do now. Having conversations about death occur far too infrequently. In case of Lauren’s mother, she believed that she was going to be healed by God until the day she died. When the artist asked her father why God would let her mum suffer and die, he simply replied, “because God has no favourites.”

Lauren Forster is a portrait and documentary photographer.

#helsinkiphotofestival

Winner Open Call + Nordic Village, Helsinki Photo

Winner Open Call + Nordic Village, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•

Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Sörnäistenlaituri, Cultural Centre Stoa, and JCDecaux Finland.

Berglind Hreiðarsdóttir, Iceland @berglindarvitleysa
Mutual

“Mutual is a series of 77 images. My grandmother, Lulla, had a ritual of collecting small albums in which she only kept images of couples. She kept them on her coffee table and showed her guests, together they would gossip about the subjects. The guests would become a part of albums as well, as long as they came in pairs.”

Berglind owes these albums since Lulla, her grandmother passed away 5 years ago. Her goal is to present them as a photography series produced by Lulla, however, the artist admits that it never felt right towards the people in the pictures since the connection or trust they shared towards her grandmother would be broken. The project became clear after reading Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water by Astrida Neimanis. The author writes:

As watery we experience ourselves less as isolated entities and more as oceanic eddies... the space between ourselves and others is at once as distant as the primeval sea, yet closer than our own skin - the traces of those same oceanic beginnings still cycling through us, pausing as this bodily thing we call “mine”.

The water in Berglind’s images translates to the world of emotions people share with their most intimate partners. Trust is a feeling and emotions are constantly flowing, therefore people we trust come and go. Tides change, partners split up, pass away, bond again and the cycle continues. In most cases covering people's faces makes them not only anonymous but it can also strip them of age, the color of their skin, gender and sexuality. What is left is the body language of people who have chosen one another.

Berglind Hreiðarsdóttir (b.1994, Selfoss) is a visual artist from Iceland who is researching her own connections to the photograph. The artist completed her bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Icelandic University of the Arts in 2018. In early 2020 she moved to Malmö, Sweden.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20 #photography #iceland

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Kaapeli, Tähtitorninvuoren puisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Eric Hanson, USA @ericbhanson
Liberal Gun Owners

Do you trust these people? You don’t know them, but they all are photographed holding guns, and that may give you an immediate feeling about them. Some might trust these people more because they appear strong, confident, and competent holding their firearms. They can protect themselves and their families. Many others might immediately distrust them. Guns symbolize a sort of rugged individualism and portend violence. Some might even feel like a person with a gun is unhinged, unable to be trusted at all. Would it change your opinion if you knew their political affiliations? While most think of gun owners as right-leaning, each of the people depicted in these photographs identifies as a liberal and they come from many different backgrounds and experiences. They include a transgender couple who live in a conservative state, an immigrant from Russia who views training with firearms as a martial art, a son of Mexican immigrants who believes minorities should arm themselves for protection because the police often can’t or won’t protect them, a funeral director who sees death every day but chooses to have firearms to protect his family, and a teacher who owns guns because he finds shooting meditative and relaxing.

These photographs force viewers to confront how their own perceptions and stereotypes influence how they trust another person in the first instance. A viewer’s initial instinct about whether they would trust or not trust these people is based solely on their perception of how the subjects look and the object they are holding. As we become a more polarized and distant society, it’s important that we think about trusting each other based on lived experiences rather than fleeting perceptions.

He was born by the beach and lives on the hill in LA. Hanson trained as a lawyer, working for more than a decade as a patent litigator. Mid-career he realized he had taken a wrong turn and began focusing on an art and photography practice.

#helphoto20

We are pleased to announce the winners of Nordic V

We are pleased to announce the winners of Nordic Village of the theme Fearless at Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. All selected artists will be exhibited from Jul 7-Sep 30 at the Art Park at Hanaholmen – Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre in Espoo.

More information about the program schedule to be released in the coming weeks.

The international jury of experts congratulates the winners. Helsinki Photo Festival takes place from July 7-September 30, 2021.

Nordic Village is a talent platform fostered by Helsinki Photo Festival to support emerging Nordic photographers. The platform exhibits visual artists from the countries of the north to a broad audience in Finland and internationally. The program includes educational activities with experts and artists from the Nordics.

www.hanaholmen.fi
www.helsinkiphotofestival.com/nordic-village

Open Call winners 2021 – Nordic Village I Fearless

Ingerid Jordal / NO
Maria Konstanse Bruun / NO

Angelika Kollin / EE

Lisa Pram / DK
Marie Bentzon / DK
Anne Lass / DK

Sari Soininen / FI
Jussi Puikkonen / FI

Kicki Lundgren / SE

* Siri Ekker Svendsen / NO
* Linda Bournane Engelberth / DZ-NO

* Rebecca Simons / FI
* Anna Kuokkanen / FI

* Cletus Nwadike / NG-SE

#helphoto21 #helsinkiphotofestival #nordicphotography #denmark #norway #sweden #estland #finland #espoo #hanaholmen #hanasaari #culture

The 50 winners of the theme Fearless at Helsinki P

The 50 winners of the theme Fearless at Helsinki Photo Festival 2021 are selected now. The award winning photographers will be exhibited at various outdoor exhibition sites around the Greater Helsinki area. During 12 weeks exhibition sites will open to the public by July 7, while a few will start later and run until September 30. More information about locations and program schedule to be released.

The international jury of experts congratulates the winners.

Hyvää Vappu! Happy May Day 2021

Felix Schöppner / DE
Matjaz Tancic / SI
Jake Eshelman / US
Alex McBride / UK
Kristen Joy Emack / US
He Bo / CN
Noelle Mason / US
Javier Corso / ES
Natalia Kepesz / PL
Ingeborg Everaerd / NL

Maria de la Paz Gutierrez / AR
Paola Jimenez / PE
Maria Gruzdeva / RU
Gabriele Cecconi / IT
Ryan Carter / CA
R.J. Kern / US
Nikita Teryoshin / RU
Bertha Wang / HK
Jasper Kettner / DE
Alain Schroeder / BE

ilir tsouko / AL
Charlotte Lakits / FR
Laura Pannack / UK
Carla Kogelman / NL
Christian Bobst / CH
Cletus Nwadike / NG-SE
Sabine Findeisen / DE
Carlo Bevilacqua / IT
Tom Price / UK
Katia Repina / RU

Carlotta Guerra / IT
Laura J. Bennett / US
Susana Girón / ES
Rebecca Simons / FI
Alessio Maximilian Schroder / IT-AT
Andrei Liankevich / BY
Peter Pflügler / AT
Cristiano Volk / IT
Siri Ekker Svendsen / NO
Róbert László Bácsi / HU

Arnaud Montagard / FR
Oğulcan Arslan / TR
Thomas Victor & Felix Adler / DE
Jooeun Bae / KR
Linda Bournane Engelberth / NO
Charlotte Mano / FR
Kai Yokoyama / JP
Charlotte Mariën / BE
Sina Niemeyer / DE
Anna Kuokkanen / FI

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto21 #opencallfinalists #helsinki #summer2021

Nordic Village becomes a touring exhibition. 12 No

Nordic Village becomes a touring exhibition. 12 Nordic visual art projects will be exhibited at the biennial Lens op de Mens at Fotofestival Pelt in Belgium. The exhibition can be visited from June 6-September 30, 2021.

Nordic Village is a talent platform fostered by Helsinki Photo Festival to support emerging Nordic photographers. The platform exhibits visual artists from the countries of the north to a broad audience in Finland and internationally. The program includes educational activities with experts and artists from the Nordics.

Now the Nordic Village introduces the next generation of emerging Nordic photographers at the biennial Lens op de Mens at Fotofestival Pelt in Belgium. Twelve nordic visual art projects, which were selected through an open call contest at previous editions of Helsinki Photo Festival, are qualified for the program. The following artists will present two works from their series: BIRGITTA STEEN DK; LAURA KROGH and ANDREAS HAUBJERG DK; MARIA KJARTANS IS; ÓMAR SVERRISSON IS; STIG MARLON WESTON NO; SVITHASETH NO; JENNY ROVA SE; SEBASTIAN SARDI SE; MARCUS GUSTAFSSON SE; HENRI AIRO FI; SVANTE GULLICHSEN FI; MARJA SALEVA FI.

In Finland, Helsinki Photo Festival will open a Nordic Village exhibition on the theme of 2021 “Fearless” from Jul 7-Sep 30 at the Art Park at Hanaholmen – Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre in Espoo. The finalists of the Nordic open call and emerging Finnish photographer Svante Gullichsen will be exhibited. A Nordic seminar with experts in the photographic field will be organised on August 27, 2021. See you and stay safe.

#helphoto21 #helsinkiphotofestival #fotofestivalpelt #belgium #finland #nordicphotography #photography

This year we have received a record number of 428

This year we have received a record number of 428 applications from 55 countries for the open call with the theme Fearless. The association is proud to announce 96 shortlisted candidates who will move further into the second round of voting to decide this year’s finalists. The talent platform Nordic Village announces 20 shortlisted authors. Our jury has been selecting only a handful of winning images out of a total of 5307 submitted photographs. The next step for the jury will be to select the best 50 authors, and 10 Nordic artists, whose photos will be curated and exhibited at the festival from July 7-September 30, 2021.

More detailed info you can find on our website under Helnews!

The most voted artists were:

Linda Bournane Engelberth (DZ-NO) “Outside the Binary" @lindabournane

Gabriele Cecconi (IT) “TiàWùK" @gabriele.cecconi

Javier Corso (ES) “Matagi" @javiercorso

Nikita Teryoshin (RU) “Nothing Personal - the back office of war" @teryoshi

Alex McBride (UK) “Artsakh Strong" @alex.mcbride

Sabine Findeisen (DE) “What We Want" @sabienfindeisen

Natalia Kepesz (PL) “Niewybuch" @nataliakepesz

Cletus Nwadike (NG-SE) “Girls struggle in Nigeria" @cletusphoto

Carlo Bevilacqua (IT) “Queer Divine” @carlo_bevilacqua

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto21 #shortlisted #photography #helsinki #finland

Winner Open Call Nordic Village, Helsinki Photo Fe

Winner Open Call Nordic Village, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland and JCDecaux Finland.

Carl-Mikael Ström, Sweden @carlmikaelstrom
Inevitably it will rain

Carl-Mikael’s project Inevitably it will rain is based on a quote by Ludwig Wittgenstein: ”What can be shown, cannot be said” (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus). In this project, he wishes to challenge the idea that photography is a language. Through his work, the author is questioning the viewer by asking: What is in his photographs that can be shown but cannot be said?

According to Carl-Mikael’s belief, how people see and perceive images is a reflection of their cultural knowledge, learnings, language, and life experiences. This is what the artist calls the “logical picture”, for example: If we see an image of an apple, we identify the object as an “apple” within the “actual image”. Anything that we are able to identify within the image he calls a “logical picture”. He suggests that there are two types of images: “Actual images” and “possible images”. The “actual images” depict the subject matter as an object contained within the “logical picture”. This way, he refers to the physical reality of an image: Frame, book, canvas, screen, etc.

Within the above-mentioned connotations lies the question of whether people have the ability to step outside of their limiting minds to reach the “possible images”. “Possible images” are those images that go beyond the “actual image”. They contain surreal elements, poetry and emotions that cannot be properly identified or explained through language or rationality. This is why Carl-Mikael believes that being skeptical about objects within the frame of the image is a prerequisite necessary to consider when viewing photography. Poetry has to be pragmatic to be relevant. There is an isomorphic tension between the photograph and the actual object it depicts. Within this tension for him lies photography’s strength. The photographs presented in his series aim to be seen as a visual mental ladder for the viewer to bridge the gap between the “actual” and the “possible” image.

#helphoto20 #helsinkiphotofestival
#trust

Winner Open Call & Nordic Village platform, Helsin

Winner Open Call & Nordic Village platform, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Kaapeli, Tähtitorninvuoren puisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Laura Krogh & Andreas Haubjerg, DK @_laurakrogh @4ndreashaubjerg
A Question of Honor

On a deserted road in Jutland, Denmark stands a house with an unknown address. The authorities call the residence a “Safehouse”, even though it mostly looks like an ordinary home. It is a secure residence, with surveillance cameras and tinted windows in the kitchen that faces the court. All of this has the purpose to protect a group of teenage girls who have been living in the shadow of their family that has exposed them to threats, violence and suppression. The girls live here because of honour-related conflicts. They were not familiar with this concept before fleeing their families and moving into Safehouse Jylland. But they do know how it feels. The authorities define it as conflicts that occur within close family relations and where the conflicts result from the perception that the honour of the family has been violated. The girls in these families are at risk of forced marriage or abusive punishment in the form of incarceration in the home or physical violence. In the most extreme cases they can be in danger of honour killing. The honour-related girls are torn between the fear of negative social control at home and the love for their family. At Safehouse Jylland they endeavour to create an identity of their own and to live a fairly ordinary teenage life. All girls in this series are anonymous for safety reasons.

“In the safe houses we have experienced firsthand that the girls can rebuild the trust in themselves and reclaim ownership of their own destiny. We are honoured and proud that the girls have shown us their story. As photographers this is the greatest trust you can receive.” Laura Krogh & Andreas Haubjerg

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20 #trust

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Various artworks of the artist were exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Kaapeli, JCDecaux Finland, and Tähtitorninvuoren puisto.

Elizabeth M Sanders, USA @lizmariesanders
Be Here To Love Me

The photo project Be Here to Love Me focuses on Elizabeth father’s struggle with dementia, and the long-troubled relationship between her mom and herself, that has shifted into something more beautiful, each year that Elizabeth’s father remembered less.

The shared sadness that the family carries in loving him has brought about a major transformation. Through photography, they have become allies. Elizabeth’s mother has become both her collaborator and assistant as she photographs, holding the reflector, or coaching her dad as she takes his portrait. He is no longer able to tell stories, and it is through the image that the artist is searching for him, turning to fiction to fill in the holes of his life with her own imagined or altered memories. How else do you locate the personhood of someone who is no longer the person you knew? Through this project, Elizabeth has come to understand the value of process and what the making of an image can do for those in it. The image becomes a talisman that holds the power of their familial exchange. The image is a way to heal.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Liz is a documentary photographer based in Brooklyn, New York, and a graduate of the Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism Program at the International Center for Photography. Liz’s photographic practice focuses on the intersection of tradition and modernity and how that affects individual and collective identities, especially within communities experiencing change. Having grown up an only child to older parents and having very little extended family, Liz has an interest in large family dynamics and intimate family relations. Most recently, Liz has been photographing her own small family, during her aging father’s struggle with dementia, and the complexities of the mother-daughter bond as they re-frame their parent-child relationship and imagine a life without him.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20
#trust

Winner Open Call & Nordic Village platform, Helsin

Winner Open Call & Nordic Village platform, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Various artworks of the artist were exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Kaapeli, Tähtitorninvuoren puisto, and JCDecaux Finland.

Anna Ellen Hamlet, Sweden @annaellenhamlet
Through Your Eyes I See Universe

Their eyes meet as they are sitting opposite each other for twenty minutes, looking into the eyes of one another, meditating together in silence. The boundary between them is erased. The large format camera is next to Anna Ellen Hamlet, to the left, and sometimes during the meditation she takes a polaroid, but the person portrayed is unaware of when. There is a mutual trust between them. An attempt to capture what is behind the mask of mankind. A need to understand the greater picture. The portrayed live and work at Yandara Yoga Institute in Mexico. They work as yoga teachers, reiki masters, astrologers, musicians etc. This project is photographed during the winters of 2017 and 2018 and collectively includes 23 portraits. Together with the portraits there is a number of guided meditations, mantras and music that has been recorded with the participants. Hamlet has arranged to return to Mexico next winter in order to photograph the characteristic landscape surrounding Yandara. She says it to be a magical place where the dry desert with the gigantic cacti meets the vast beaches of the Pacific Ocean. It is her plan to make a book out of the combination of the portrait and landscape photographs together with the sounds of mantras and meditation.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Anna Ellen Hamlet graduated from Gothenburg Photography School in June 2016. Alongside with photography, she works as a part-time nurse. Hamlet’s pictures are an experiment with the photographic image of mankind and what it means to be alive. “With my photographs, I explore our innermost, myself through others and others through myself. The search for what's behind the mask.” Hamlet

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20 #trust #swedishphotographer #yoga #spiritual

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020! Th

Winner Open Call, Helsinki Photo Festival 2020!
Theme: Trust
•
Various artworks of the artist were exhibited at the National Museum of Finland, Teurastamo, Cultural Centre Stoa, and JCDecaux Finland.

Alexis Vasilikos, Greece @alexis.vasilikos
Balancing Act

Alexis Vasilikos’ series Balancing Act revolves around the idea of minimum gestures between people and our environment. Gestures that are vital in the construction of trust; vital to life today. His work consists mainly of small and medium format prints. Prints that require intimacy between the viewer and the subject. “Trust is natural to us, it is there by itself, we are trusting life naturally. What comes out of trust, is a sense of balance – trust brings balance and balance brings trust. These two are interconnected.” Christina Androulidaki

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Alexis Vasilikos (b. 1977) is an Athens-based visual artist who works primarily with photography. His work revolves around peripatetic photography, meditation and energetic editing, and is deeply influenced by Eastern mysticism. He studied photography in Athens, at Focus and A.k.t.o. and attended the Art History course of D.A.M.S. in Bologna. Since 2012 he is the co-editor of Phases Magazine, an online publication that showcases fine art photography. He is also represented by CAN Christina Androulidaki Gallery.

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto20 #trust #photography #greekphotographer

Do you want to be exhibited in Helsinki during the

Do you want to be exhibited in Helsinki during the summer? Our open call for photographers and visual artist is open now. The theme for 2021 is Fearless. Extended deadline until March 28. Enter now!
https://bit.ly/2Wg7eDH

#helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto2021 #helsinki #opencall #opencallforartists #fineartphotography #contemporaryart #photography

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