Let's look back on Helsinki Photo Festival 2021 💭 The cultural centre Stoa in Eastern Helsinki was home to not one, but two of the festival's exhibitions! Outside, an impressive Art Wall could be admired - day and night. On grey days, photography enthusiasts go inside to take refuge from the rain and look at the magnificent pictures of a selection of this year's open call finalists. The exhibition was themed 'fearless'. The winning projects linked the concept to dealing with anxiety, to the difference in perceiving reality, and to extreme and traditional customs. The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Winner Open Call Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. Theme: Fearless. Felix Schöppner (@felix.schoeppner), Germany. "Cognition". In what way does human sensory perception take place in a high-tech world for connections outside of what is apparently possible? Perception is the recognition of an object or state in our immediate environment with the help of our 5 senses. Technical devices help us exceed and expans the biological limits. The perception of invisible subjects and states therefore often takes place first in an abstract way with values ​​that are assigned to certain parameters and can be visualized based on this. The clear way of representing values ​​is in a graphic, a drawing or a scaled model. Since size relationships play a decisive role here, in some cases you are forced to not display the relationships of objects proportionally to one another. This series deals with this topic by using terms from the fields of physics and astronomy and presenting them in simplified models. These are the ways we can perceive the world around us today. But for us to be at this point, it took pioneers who expanded the limits and made them tangible. The first astronauts paved the way for a completely new, undeveloped space. It demanded enormous willpower and fearlessness from them, as they could not foresee whether they would survive their journeys into space. Felix Schöppner (b.1990, Germany) works mostly in the genre of still life with a link to sculpture and installation. His work impresses with a high degree of stringency and perfection, both in terms of content and implementation. For him, photography is part of a comprehensive process in dealing with questions of human perception. Find out more about Felix and his projects on https://felixschoeppner.de/ The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Winner International/Nordic Open Call Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. Theme: Fearless. Linda Bournane Engelberth (@lindabournane), Norway. "Outside the Binary". Non-binary people have always existed, yet the terminology is new, and many people are confused about what non-binary really means. Non-binary people fall under the LGBTQ umbrella. Many non-binary people face a lot of discrimination in their environment all over the world. All the subjects in this project are brave and have faced their fears about being different. Many are activists and are proud to tell their stories. Only by openness we can face fear. And by standing strong together against people that discriminate. Many countries still make life dangerous by having laws against LGBTQ people. Non-binaries are attacked, harassed and get arrested in some places. Even in more open countries that embrace LGBTQ people through their law systems, non-binary people are facing discrimination, and many are still living difficult lives. Meeting other people in the same situation helps, and many non-binary people have strong and loving communities. Still the world needs to be educated to create more comprehension and to normalize the situation for people who don’t identify as gender binary. The whole series is 40 photos from all over the world. Linda Bournane Engelberth is a Norwegian/Algerian artist based in Oslo and Berlin. Her work focuses on identity through personal and subjective narratives, as well as rural communities which are in flux. Find out more about Linda and her projects on https://www.lindabournane.com/ The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki Area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Let's look back on Helsinki Photo Festival 2021 💭 One of the festival's highlights was - without a doubt - the Nordic Village. For a period of three months, the beautiful art park on Hanaholmen @hanaholmen became even more impressive, as it showcased the works of talented Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic and Estonian artists. Moreover, the Finnish emerging photographer Svante Gullichsen presented a second solo exhibition titled 'fearless'. The magnificent project presents mental health issues by referring to the relation between human and nature as well as the fundamental relation between darkness and light. The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Winner Open Call Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. Theme: Fearless. Cristiano Volk (@cristiano_volk), Italy. "Laissez-Faire". Imagine a living under the glow of artificial daylight, where reality is not experienced directly, but mediated through screens. Imagine a world so densely networked that all of the distinctions that help us make sense of time and place – interior and exterior, private and public, day and night – have collapsed into a neon-hued hallucination. Imagine the alienation of billions of subjects whose sole purpose is to act as vehicles for the exchange of commodities. This is the world described in Laissez-Faire. It may sound like a dystopian future, but it is our present. The crosshairs within which we might focus these observations, however, are historical ones. Laissez-faire capitalism has its roots in the political economist Adam Smith’s doctrine that human economic behaviour was subject to an underlying natural order which would be corrupted by any form of regulation. Volk’s photographs also hint at deeper and more insidious entanglements. It is not just the boundaries between interior and exterior that seem to dissolve in his images, but those that set us apart from the technologies upon which we depend. The electronic life that pulses through the city is nothing more nor less than our own desires projected back at us, holding us spellbound in a beautiful nightmare. Cristiano Volk is an Italian photographer. His works have a critical view of social, political and cultural issues. Find out more about Cristiano and his projects on https://www.cristianovolk.com/ The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater #galleriafuturaHelsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Winner International/Nordic Open Call Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. Theme: Fearless. Cletus Nwadike (@cletusphoto), Nigeria/Sweden. "Girl Struggle in Nigeria". Some people in Nigeria do not think that girls should go to school. Some people are willing to kill girls who disagree. Schools have been burnt down and more than 2000 teachers killed. Many girls live in fear. When Nigeria got its independence in October 1960 the proportion of female students rose from 7.7% in 1960 to 45% in 2009. Education is the best way to move a nation forward and bestows on girls a disposition for a lifelong acquisition of knowledge, values, attitudes, competence, and skills. There are about 10,5 million children in our country that are out of school. Most of them are girls. The Nigerian society both historical and contemporary, has been dotted with peculiar cultural practices that do not encourage girl’s freedom, such as early marriage, wife-inheritance, and widowhood practices. The dominant narratives of religion in both colonial and post-colonial Nigerian society privilege men to the detriment of women. According to The Guardian issue number 20201211, the leader of the extremist group that abducted hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria six years ago has claimed responsibility for the mass abduction of 300 students in north-western Katsina state. The extremist group kidnapped 276 girls from their school dormitory in Chibok, in north-eastern Borno state, in April 2014 and about 100 are still missing. Cletus Nelson Nwadike (b.1966, Nigeria) is a freelance​ photographer and a poet based in Sweden. Find out more about Cletus and his projects on https://www.cletusnwadike.se/ The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Let's look back on Helsinki Photo Festival 2021 💭 This summer, everyone who happened to stroll down Helsinginkatu was treated to some amazing photography. The pictures were put on display in collaboration with the Ebeneser Foundation's Kindergarten Museum and, as such, the exhibition was specifically curated for children. The works were themed 'fearless' and linked the concept to having the strenght to persevere, to living in changing conditions and to the importance of education. The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Winner Open Call Nordic - Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. Theme: Fearless. Siri Ekker Svendsen (@siriekker), Norway. "All the Whisperings of the World". This work examines the visual connections between the vulnerability of nature and the bodily effects of an allergic reaction, based on the Brazil nut tree and the artist's allergy. Through two trips to the Amazon and collaborations with the University of Oslo and a Swedish research team, Siri has worked on the connections between the body’s and the forest’s ecology, and how everything living is part of complex ecological systems. Both the Brazil nut tree and certain types of allergies are examples of nature's vulnerability, complexity and diversity. The work represents a journey and examines some of the diverse systems and invisible contexts we are part of through nature. It shows what we know is measurable, and compares it with phenomena that are not measurable in the same way. Pictured are the tree, its environment, the nut in magnification, and the allergic reaction the nut causes. On this journey from the macro level to a microscopic one, the human body is a link between external and internal realities. In the photographs the artist focuses on abstractions and visual connections and associations, where different magnitudes are equated and contrasted. Siri wants to contrast the measurable, scientific experience with that of belonging to a larger context of interconnected beings – an ecosystem. Siri Ekker Svendsen is a visual artist from Norway. Her works are concerned with the relationship between nature, perception and consciousness, and the connection between the physical world and the human perception and imagination. Find out more about Siri and her projects on http://www.siriekker.com/ The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Winner Open Call Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. Theme: Fearless. Matjaž Tančič (@matjaztancic), Slovenia. "Mars on Earth" Space exploration is booming. China's space agency landed the first spacecraft on the far side of the moon, NASA is planning to send humans there once again as a part of its long-term strategy to reach Mars by the 2030s and billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have created private space businesses. Matjaž Tančič' project is interested in the idiosyncratic visionaries, often cash-strapped and working in the grey areas of the law, developing technologies for space travel and exploration. He followed the advancements of Mars colonisation research in China, United States and Europe. From Mars architects, doctors, farmers, engineers, home rocket builders and multi-billion start-ups developing the self sustainable Mars habitats. We are living in the future, now, on Earth. Matjaž Tančič (b. 1982) is a lens-based artist working mainly on documentary and independent projects between China and Slovenia. His work explores the lines between documentary, portrait and art photography to engage with social and cultural issues. He likes to experiment within the photographic medium and is mainly known for his 3D stereography projects. Find out more about Matjaž and his projects on http://matjaztancic.com/ The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. Between July 7th and September 30th, the unique works of 50+ open call winners are exhibited at/in various outdoor and indoor locations. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Let's look back on Helsinki Photo Festival 2021 💭 Keran Hallit, a centre offering space to create and develop innovative ideas, was transformed into an open-air photography exhibition. Ten of the festival's most popular pictures were displayed on large stands, designed by Anastasia Kravchenko (MA student at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture). The featured artists were 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) and Cletus Nwadike (NG-SE). Find out more about their magnificent projects on our website. The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #espoo #keranhallit

Winner Open Call Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. Theme: Fearless. Nikita Teryoshin (@teryoshi), Russia. "Nothing Personal - the Back Office of War". Every day, we are confronted with pictures of war and destruction. Every year, more money is spent on arms. "Nothing Personal" shows the other side of war. The global defense busness is the complete opposite of a battlefield. It is an oversized playground for adults with drinks, finger food, and shiny weapons. Dead bodies are mannequins or pixels on the screen of a simulator. War is staged in an artificial environment in front of high-ranking ministers, heads of states, generals, and traders. Faces are deliberately not shown. It is not the artist’s intention to focus on a person but rather to show the system. The anonymized traders with weapons covering their heads allude to John Heartfield's anti-war drawing - Dangerous Dining Companions. Teryoshin likes the idea of this symbolism. In the worst case, you will find these weapons in civil wars, or in the hands of dictators oppressing their own people. Some companies are also working in the civil sector, however, and various developments can also be found in everyday life. The pictures have been taken at 13 highly exclusive defense exhibitions between 2016 and 2019 in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America. Nikita Teryoshin is a Russian photographer based in Berlin. He describes his photography work as “street, documentary and everyday horror”. Find out more about Nikita and his projects on https://nikitateryoshin.com/ The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura

Winner Open Call Helsinki Photo Festival 2021. Theme: Fearless. Carla Kogelman (@carlakogelman), The Netherlands. "day 293". “My brother has a rare blood disease for which he had a stem cell transplant in February. He was in the VUmc in Amsterdam for a month and when he came out there was corona. This made him extremely vulnerable. He did not feel safe in his own home with two adolescent sons, whom you can't and don't want to chain up. So, he called me. Henri lived with me for 7 weeks during the first lockdown. In the summer, the situation was safe enough to return home. When the summer vacation ended, the infections and the fear of corona rose again. In addition, Henri constantly feared graft-versus-host. A consequence of allogeneic stem cell transplantation can be graft-versus-host disease, which can be a life-threatening side effect. In graft-versus-host disease, the donor's immune cells (graft) attack the cells of the patient (host). Yes, he did get it. The skin turns into a pigment incontinence battlefield. The patient doesn't like that, but ... to be honest ... I like that. The day of the stem cell transplant is called day 0. As if you were born again and start a new life. From day 293, Henri lives with me again. He challenges himself even more and works on his resistance. Until he feels safe enough to return home" Carla Kogelman (b.1961, Netherlands) captures daily life. Being around the same people for a long time, she becomes invisible. This gives her the opportunity to get an insight into the lives of her subjects and reach the real story underneath the surface. ​ ​ Find out more about Carla and her projects on https://www.carlakogelman.nl/ The Helsinki Photo Festival (#HelPhoto) is an annual event showcasing Nordic and international photography in the Greater Helsinki area. Between July 7th and September 30th, the works of 50+ open call winners are exhibited in/at various locations. www.helsinkiphotofestival.com #helsinkiphotofestival #photography #festival #photographyexhibition #exhibitionsinfinland #helsinkiart #contemporaryart #taide #kunst #artfestivals #helphoto21 #fearless #fineartphotography #discoverhelsinki #helsinki #galleriafutura