Sixth edition running until Oct 30!​

Helsinki Photo Festival is a visual arts event focused on photography opened August 5 and will end October 30. The sixth edition on the theme Courage is exhibited in the metropolitan area. The event is held annually bringing every edition a new art experiences to Greater Helsinki. In a period of 12 weeks curated photography exhibitions can be discovered in public spaces, popup events and at cultural institutions. The festival presents 50 artists from 24 countries with new works which have not been shown before in Finland.

The winners are from a variety of genres and were selected by an international jury. In 2023, the festival received 462 submissions comprising a total of 6555 images from 67 different countries. From these submissions, the jury chose 40 winners for the international open call category, along with an additional 10 emerging talents from the Nordic region. 

The 2023 program includes outdoor exhibitions at Ebeneser Foundation – The Kindergarten Museum (5.8.-17.9.2023), Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden (30.8.-30.10.2023), and Hanaholmen – Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre (5.8.-1.10.2023). The most significant exhibition will take place indoors in the Sanoma House (4.10.-29.10.2023) situated in Finlandia Park downtown Helsinki. Various educational events are scheduled, such as the Nordic Seminar (29.9.2023) at Annantalo, Portfolio reviews (30.9.2023) at Sofia Helsinki’s cultural hub in Torikorttelit in the Old Town. A workshop with Belgian three times World Press and Helsinki Photo winner Alain Schroeder is planned in the last week of October (tbc).

#courage #photography #helsinki #finland #helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto 

Helsinki Photo Festival’s educational highlight of the year, the annual Nordic seminar with prominent Nordic curators, visual artists, curators, photography teachers, photo editors and publishers will be organised on September 9, 2022.

Confirmed speakers:

Katrin Elvarsdottir (IS) – Photographer and Co-Director – The Icelandic Photo Festival (TIPF)
Katrin Elvarsdottir is the co-director of The Icelandic Photography Festival, held biannually in January, as well as a lecturer and a curator. She is also an artist working mainly with photography, and has published several books including “Songbirds”, “Double Happiness’’ and “Equivocal”. Elvarsdóttir’s works are included in several collections, and she has had a number of solo and group exhibitions throughout the world, including in Iceland, Finland, USA, South Korea, Austria, and others. Katrin is represented by BERG Contemporary Gallery in Reykjavik. 
www.katrinelvarsdottir.com

Pelle Kronestedt (SE) – Photographer and Senior lecturer, Operation Manager CFF – Stockholm
Pelle Kronestedt (b. 1968) is a Swedish photographer and senior lecturer in photography at University of Gothenburg. Pelle is today operations manager at CFF – Center for Photography in Stockholm. He has exhibited internationally and nationally in around thirty museums and galleries and appeared in many publications. He has also helped other artists with exhibitions and publications.
www.centrumforfotografi.com

Pål Henrik Ekern (NO) – Diversity Curator, Preusmuseum, Norway’s National Museum of Photography
Paal Henrik Ekern holds an MFA in photography from Valand Academy at the University of Gothenburg. Currently, he works as a diversity curator, educator, producer, and project coordinator for Preus museum, Norway’s National Museum of Photography. He creates and produces exhibitions as well as managing the museum’s outreach projects which focuses on collecting and exhibiting contemporary documentation created by the documented communities themselves.
www.preusmuseum.no

Rune Eraker (NO) – Documentary photographer and Editor Norwegian Journal of Photography
Rune Eraker (b.1961) has for more than 30 years worked as an independent documentary photographer. He has had a number of solo-exhibitions in museums internationally. He has published widely in magazines and newspapers, both in Norway and abroad. He has published a number of photo-books. In 2010, he founded the Norwegian Journal of Photography (NJP) together with The Fritt Ord Foundation in Oslo, and has since then led the editorial team of NJP. He was one of four curators at European Photo Exhibition Award (EPEA) 2011-17. He’s a member of the Art Photographers association of Norway, FFF.
www.njp.no/en

Rasmus Stenbakken (DK) – Curator, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art
Rasmus Stenbakken holds a MA in art history. He is curator at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art in Ishøj, Denmak. Previously he worked as a curator at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum and director at Galleri Nicolai Wallner. Among others he has curated shows and projects with artists such as Elmgreen & Dragset, Douglas Gordon and Martin Creed. 
www.arken.dk

Søren Solkær (DK) – Photographer
Søren Solkær (b. 1969) is a Danish photographer. He is best known for his distinctive portraits of musicians and recognised as the man responsible for various iconic images of Björk, The White Stripes, Paul McCartney, David Lynch, Amy Winehouse, and many more. Søren’s photography is characterized by finding a tension point between intimacy and edginess. His portraits are often regarded as cinematic in tone with a distinctive colour palette. He has released six fine art photography books and exhibited all over the world. His work is featured as part of the permanent collection in The Royal Danish Library and The National Portrait Collection in Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark.
www.sorensolkaer.com

Stefan Bremer (FI) – Photographer and Senior lecturer
Stefan Bremer  (b. 1953, Helsinki, Finland) is a photographer, visual artist and senior lecturer. In the 1970s, he studied at Aalto University. Since then, he has taught in Finnish art schools as well as at the Stockholm School of Photography and the Gothenburg University. He has led intensive photography workshops in Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been shown around the world in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and his photographs are part of many public and private collections. At the heart of his artistic production, Stefan Bremer works with people. He has studied the difficulties of being human. Bremer was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Photography in 1988, the title of Artist Professor in 1999 and the Culture Prize of the City of Helsinki in 2011.
www.100finnishphotographers.fi/stefan-bremer

Konsta Punkka (FI) – Nature Photographer, Nikon Ambassador
Konsta Punkka (b. 1994) is a commercial nature photographer (worldwide published wildlife), speaker and Nikon Ambassador. During the past ten years, he has shot, directed and been featured in dozens of commercial projects varying from car industries, photography and outdoor brands to tourism boards. His work has been featured in dozens of outlets including National Geographic, Instagram and BBC.
www.konstapunkka.com

Language: English

Program
The event starts with registration at 9.30, seminar program 10-16, incl. lunch and breaks for coffee. Schedule (tbc).

Registration and fees
The registration for on-site attendance ends on Thursday at 11:30am, 8th of September, 2022.

www.tinyurl.com/2uf4kwuz

Price: 15 euros

#seminar #education #photography #helsinkiphotofestival #helphoto22 #nordicphotography #speakers #contemporaryart #innovation #finland #hanaholmen