Helsinki Photo News

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the very first edition of Helsinki Photo News! We dedicated this issue to Helsinki Photo Festival 2020, the third edition of the photo event we run annually in Helsinki, Finland. For twelve weeks the festival attracted photo enthusiasts to exhibitions of works by Nordic and international photographers spread all over the capital.

Helsinki Photo Festival aims at pushing the boundaries for exploring photography and bringing the photo art back on the streets. The festival team creates curated exhibitions and organized a series of events during summer. The biggest attractions of the festival are outdoor installations at popular tourist spots in the metropolitan area. Events included artist talks, workshops, seminars, portfolio reviews, and photo walks.

The main exhibition of year 2020 was hosted by the National Museum of Finland from July 7 to September 30, which has also become the main hub for this year’s events program. Outdoor exhibitions in the museum’s Summer Yard featured works of emerging Finnish and Nordic artists and the wall on Museokatu and Töölonkatu hosted a gallery exhibition of the open call winners, which could be viewed around the clock.

The theme of this year’s festival was Trust. Little did we know when deciding this theme in spring, how important would trust become in 2020! In our open call we have asked our contestants to think about these questions: What is Trust? How can Trust be perceived in visual language? How can we consciously feel Trust? What do we consider trust to be and can it be regained? Can Trust change our life and how would such a transition affect our existence? How can communities acknowledge differences while building unity? As prejudices continue to divide us, how can Trust encourage accountability and solidarity? What role does truth play in Trust in friendship, family or love? What happens if you lose Trust in society or humanity?

We have received 2784 images from all 5 populated continents, from 310 genuinely talented artists and our international jury had a really hard time to select only 50 finalists. We were smitten by a mindblowing quality of submissions and spent a few weeks on evaluating the works and curating the exhibitions. This year’s edition moved us one step closer to our main goal: to make Helsinki the photo capital of the North.

Enjoy reading our first issue of Helsinki Photo News introducing all exhibited artists, venues and events of the year 2020.

Cover © Marlena Waldthausen, Noiva do Cordeiro 3 - Matriarch Delina, 2018

Helsinki Photo News is a new periodical publication promoting emerging photographers and events for photo enthusiasts. It is published by Helsinki Photo Festival ry, the association which aims to attract interest and disseminate information on photography and visual culture in Finland and abroad.