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Photo Book Reviews

The Helsinki School (Hatje Cantz) photography by TaiK, reviewed by Nicole Francheur Finland's University of Art and Design Helsinki has been one of Scandinavia's most prolific sources of contemporary art. Publishers Hatje Cantz have used this collection to feature the inspiring work coming from this school's young artists Article rating: 7.86

Since 1974, the photography program at the University of Art and Design Helsinki has been the incubator for some of the most thought-provoking contemporary art in Finland. The Helsinki School, showcases thirty-four world-class artists that have benefited from TaiK’s nurturing program either as professors or students. The artists associated with Finland’s only university-level photography program produce photography-based work that is extremely diverse in process and content. Yet a common sensibility can be seen that has much to do with the natural elements of Finland’s location, landscape and climate.

This compilation opens the broader world to Finnish culture. In particular, Pekka Turunen photographs a nationality, much in the spirit of August Sander, although a world apart in approach and style. His photographs appear to seek out the curious and odd, but altogether genuine. Turunen’s environmental portraits speak volumes of a culture that is replete with farmers, hunters and snow, a people that are connected to the land. One such “neighbor” is Veikko Kettunen dressed in his insulating fur standing in a local grocery store before a deli counter surrounded by Christmas decorations and bottled beverages.

Combining text and image, Jari Silomäki, marries the public with the private. The carefully cursive handwriting across the photograph layers a personal narration, an interpretation of the universal pictorial representation. Simple and familiar language that engages the viewer to see something more, feel something deeper than what lies at the surface. Silomäki depicts the landscape as a hibernating animal, as a vast backdrop to daily life, as a constant to our perpetually shifting lives.

The long and dark winters for those not far from the Arctic Circle, at times instill a quiet solitude full of contemplation and reflection. The suggestive narratives formulated in Aino Kannisto’s self-portraits are radiant with saturated colors and carefully calculated at all times. While visually stimulating, it is the personal tension and angst that dominates the photograph. For each of Kannisto’s characters, we catch her in a time of personal struggle when the exterior world seems to provide the least amount of comfort.

Collectors and the objects of their obsession are the inspiration for Veli Granö’s color photographs. In the photographs, his subjects are involved with their possessions, whether it be a man in a straight jacket with his collection of handcuffs scattered all over the floor or a man seated on top of a radio with a radio in his lap encircled by shelves heaped with radios. Granö captures the popular pastime of collecting in a descriptive and humorous way, enclosing his subjects by their treasures.

Many of the artists featured in The Helsinki School do not limit themselves to photographing in their homeland. A number have traveled to very different places including Tokyo, the Amazon and India. Meanwhile, others have chosen to travel outside their country, but within a similar terrain. Tiina Itkonen has spent the last ten years traveling and living around Northern Greenland, photographing communities of Polar Eskimos. These vibrant images beautifully demonstrate how removed and intertwined a population living on the fringe can be.

“Possibly of the Universal Movement” is a photograph by Nanna Hänninen, abstract and otherworldly in its ambiguity and ethereality. A simple still life of three badminton birdies is transformed into an uncertain space by the white on white monochrome palate and shallow depth of focus. Hänninen allows the viewer to freely interpret her images, as she blurs the lines between reality and fiction.

The open, wild and at times bleak landscape found in Riita Päiväläinen’s photographs form the backdrop for articles of clothing that come to life in the natural elements. A still slice of time with a simple straight horizon and leafless tree becomes the clothesline for black pants and shirts dancing in a twisting wind. Although without a trace of human life, Päiväläinen breathes life into her images by using nature as her collaborator.

From constructed narratives to abstracted still lives, The Helsinki School has been home to many genres of photography. Included among those is the documentary work of Joakim Eskildsen, who has been working with the Roma people since 2000. Living among his subjects, Eskildsen has traveled to Hungary, India, Romania, Greece, France and Russia to document the Roma people and understand their daily lives and culture’s history. His photographs depict a people not unlike any other, but with its own traditions and personality as can be seen through his intimate portraits, views of residential quarters and details of the every day.

Beyond a strong commitment to craft and sensitivity to the natural world, it is evident that artists connected to the University of Art and Design Helsinki are breaking new ground in the photographic medium. Unlike the removed quality of the German School comprised of many of the students of Bernd and Hilla Becher, The Helsinki School delves into the psyche of the individual, using the landscape as a stage.

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