Mikkeli Centre of Photography is an art centre and museum, specializing in art photography. Mikkeli Centre of Photography was established in 1989, being one of the oldest centres of photography in Finland. The centre houses five separate gallery spaces: Hall, Galleries I, II, III and Lounge Gallery. The centre is located in a beautiful heritage building at the university campus of Mikkeli, a short walk from the market square.

In these galleries there are changing exhibitions showing contemporary Finnish photography, and in Gallery III often photographs of the local cultural history and heritage from the collections of the Centre. There is also an Information Service Desk in the Lounge.

The Centre promotes photography and visual arts on regional, national and international level. The Centre organises high quality art exhibitions, conducts photography, art and media education, is an expert in publishing photography books and houses a Digital Photography Workshop and visual design workshop space Kultura for artists' work, education and research. We work in cooperation with the Cultural Services of Mikkeli City and Arts Promotion Centre Finland. The Centre is also a member of Finnish Museums Association.

Everybody Hurts in War
Findings from the Finnish Wartime Photo Archive

15.6.–26.8.2023

During the Second World War (1939–1945), hundreds of artists and information professionals served in the Information Company of the Finnish army.

They went to war not only with conventional weapons, but also with pens, cameras and brushes. A "new type of weapon" was also developing in Finland from propaganda and art as part of it.

With the right kind of information, the will to fight was maintained at the front, but above all, faith was cast in the justification of one's cause at home.

The exhibition "Everybody Hurts in War" presents the inhumanity of war with the touching images of IC-photographers.

The exhibition's material has been compiled by the Center's board members Olli Jaatinen, Pasi Räsämäki, Heli Seppänen and Simo Väisänen. Artist photographer Olli Jaatinen has edited the material into an exhibition.

The exhibition is a tribute to all circa 50 IC-photographers who put their lives on the line in dangerous frontline conditions.

Annimari Taivalsaari

The subject of my pictures is often a mythical or romantic landscape. I have been working on my current series of works since 2015 and it was exhibited for the first time in Galerie Pleiku, Berlin 2016 under the name On the Way to Magic Land. The largest collection has been exhibited in the Galleria Vanha Kappalaisentalo in Porvoo in the fall of 2019. The starting point for the series of works has been my own hiking trips over several years. Along the way, the series has been supplemented with new works and received new emphasis.

In the landscape I travel to myself, conveying my own experience of nature and my mental landscape. Temporality is present in the constant change and layered dimension of the landscape. Behind visible reality hides a mysterious and enigmatic world, revealing itself only in glimpses. The landscape condenses the feeling of longing and longing in the face of all transience, but on the other hand, also the expectation of the birth and meeting of the new. Time levels and places mix, cutting the border between dream and reality, past and present: the visible and the invisible meet and the landscapes form timeless, universal worlds. In terms of aesthetics, my works have been inspired by the landscape tradition of East Asia as well as the painting art/symbolism of the Romantic period.

Annimari Taivalsaari (b. 1967, Helsinki) is a photo artist from Helsinki, who graduated as a visual artist from the Artschool of Imatra in 1998 and later completed her studies as a visual artist at the Lahti Institute of Design and Art. Although the starting point of Taivalsaari's works is photography, she often describes subjects and layers images so that their visual language is closer to painting than traditional photography. Taivalsaari has held numerous exhibitions since 2000, both in Finland and abroad.

Pentti Sammallahti
Cilento, Italia, 1999

The Mikkeli Centre of Photography has a fine series of Pentti Sammallahti's works in its collections. The pictures on display now take us to Italy, Morocco and Nepal.

Luca Tanriverdi, Kauri Tuononen, Ville Maanselkä and Arttu Laine turned one of the gallery rooms into a camera obscura, i.e. a dark room.

The Mikkeli Centre of Photography has organized training since its establishment, i.e. since 1988. In the 2010s, the focus has been on youth education without basic education requirements.

At the beginning of the camp, a camera obscura, i.e. a dark room, was built from one of the gallery rooms. A small hole was made in the aluminum foil covering the windows. An image of the opposite view was reflected through it. The destination was the shelters of the Urheilupuisto school, i.e. the barracks school.

[The camera obscura principle may have been used already in the Stone Age. This is evidenced by cave paintings, where the distortions of animal shapes seem to be caused by the fact that the surface onto which the image was obliquely reflected was not straight.]

The young people moved from the dark room to the operation of a digital SLR camera: camera body caps with a pinhole were installed on a few cameras. The Stone Age and modern times met.

Next, we got to know studio photography and realized together portraits and experimental movement sequences using, for example, a lightsaber.

We were introduced to image processing, exhibition planning and proofing. The end result is a group exhibition, which is open during the center's opening hours until the beginning of April.

The target group of the camp was young people born between 2007 and 2012, and the camp location was the Mikkeli Centre of Photography.

The teachers of the camp were: photographer, photography lecturer Pasi Räsämäki and MA, artist photographer Olli Savio.

Media training for young people is supported by the Regional Administration Office of Eastern Finland, Education and Culture.

Miller Siblings
Three on the Bridge, circa 1910

The history of Inkilä Manor in Juva dates back to the 16th century. At that time, the region was called Laihaniemi. The man named Inki was the one who started the story: in 1572, Ingila is said to have had three horses, three cows, seven sheep, and a goat. The tradition has been preserved.

Over the centuries, Inkilänhovi has changed hands several times. Gunsmith Tuomas Juhonpoika owned the manor in the 17th century. He left the still-used name Sepänniemi.

During the Great Northern War in the early 18th century, the Tawast brothers bought the manor. Their sister Kristina Tawast married Livian Kristian Wahl. It is believed that Wahl would have imported a pea variety from the Baltics, known in the Lund Gene Bank as “Inkilä pea”.

The great boom of Inkilä was experienced during the Poppius family in the late 18th century and early 19th century. The Poppius were a priestly family from Juva and also owned the Vehmaa manor.

The manor was bought from the inheritance of Poppius in 1847 by Sergeant Karl Miller, whose family owned the manor until the 1970s, when opera singer Martti and his wife Annukka Talvela bought the farm. The Inkilänhovi underwent extensive renovations during 1979–81. Talvelas’ interest in organic farming arose in the years when the family lived in Central Europe and the United States, from where eco-thinking also began to spread to Finland.

After Martti Talvela's death in 1989, the manor was owned by Talvelas’ daughter Johanna with her husband Severi Hirvonen. The trade is organic farming and sheep farming.

Photography developed into a major form of recording in the era of the Miller family. The estate of Inkilänhovi consists of twenty photo albums and thousands of photos. Only a few albums compiled by Ella, Hugo and August (Atte) Miller have been selected for this exhibition. It is not clear exactly which shots from those albums were typed by anyone. Thus, there may be several Miller shots in this exhibition in addition to the trio mentioned.

On the one hand, the subjects of Millers’ photographs are snapshots commonly seen in family albums, on the other hand, they tell of the photographers’ efforts to create something classic – the Golden Age of Finnish Art was lived at that time, and Millers could not have avoided seeing Albert Edelfelt's or Akseli Gallen-Kallela's paintings.

The pictures in the exhibition are from the collections of Johanna Hirvonen / Inkilänhovi, Heikki Miller, Risto Miller and Torsti Miller.

The exhibition is curated and executed by Olli Jaatinen, MA, the artistic director of the Mikkeli Centre of Photography.

19.1.–18.2.2023
Hall and Lobby Gallery: Pasi Räsämäki: Urbaario – A Collection of Urban Finds
Gallery I: Pentti Sammallahti: Photos from the Centre's Collections
Gallery III: The Life in Inkilänhovi in the Early 20th Century as Depicted by Miller Siblings

Verna Kovanen
Stop, 2020

Broken Holiday Album is a photographer Verna Kovanen´s journey to the places which once were locations of happy family vacations of her childhood.

At the same time, holiday destinations seem to be places that rely heavily on personal memories and, on the other hand, symbolize a familiar and very much-copied concept made for the mass tourism industry.

Resorts are places, where nostalgia, global political crises, and the escapist needs of the traveler mix. In addition to holiday destinations, Broken Holiday Album series tells about us as travelers and tourists, and about time passing and the constant change whether we like it or not.

Verna Kovanen (b. 1989, Helsinki) is a visual artist and photographer based in Helsinki, Finland. She holds a Master´s degree in Visual Culture, Contemporary Art and Curating and Bachelor´s degree in Photography. Her works have been published in two photo books (Broken Holiday Album, 2022 and Invisibles, 2016) and seen in several solo and group shows around Finland and also internationally. Kovanen's partly autobiographical works deal with the themes of the power of imagination, nostalgia and memory.

Alexandra Trufanova
Equivalents (Not Clouds) XXXVII
2021

In her ongoing series Equivalents [not clouds] (2021–), Alexandra Trufanova explores the aesthetic elements of the digital photography and the power relations between the software developer and the user.

Before the image appears on the smartphone screen, it goes through many predetermined algorithms that the user cannot influence. The artist sees it as a process where control is transferred from the user to the device and finally to the software developer. Trufanova aims to regain control by modifying the output of the smartphone camera.

Equivalents (not clouds) photo series deviates from aesthetic stereotypes, reality, and literal interpretation by moving towards the abstract. The use of pixels, digital noise and strong colours challenge the boundaries between photography and digital art.

Alexandra Trufanova (b. 1987, Kaliningrad, Russia) is an artist who recently graduated from the Turku Academy of Arts. Since 2020, she has focused on topics related to digitization and digital photography.

Pasi Räsämäki
The Mask, 2019
Spangly Drawstring, 2022

I got the idea of Urbaario, when I started photographing urban discoveries. When plant-related material is searched for and stored in a familiar herbarium, the urbarium collects discoveries about human habitat and interprets the information they convey about our species and lifestyle. The collector of the urbaario observes the mundane urban environment and trains the eye to notice what is buzzing in the landscape: someone has dropped a bottle cap or sunglasses, someone has forgotten their backpack, someone else their wristwatch. In describing these random discoveries, I have been pondering what they look like and where they come from. Effort has been put into developing a product and a brand – and then, once it's consumed, it becomes rubbish. Ambiguous images that play with a change of scale bring before us the roaring beauty of these forgotten objects.

Similar random beauty exists in archaeology. Hardly anyone in the past has dropped a ring on a field to leave it there on purpose. The money has been hidden for reasons other than as a sign to those who discover it in the future. Abandoned places of residence have simply been left where they are. By studying them, we modern humans can deduce a wide range of things from the lifestyles of the people of the past.

In the Urbaario – A Collection of Urban Finds exhibition, my photographs and archaeological finds engage in a dialogue about the questionable difference between rubbish and treasure. By comparing these different elements, you can also think about the wasteful human nature – throughout the ages, we also leave behind unintended signs of ourselves. The past is not only behind us, but it is also beneath us, on many floors. On top, on the surface layer, we see traces of the life of a modern, urban human.

Pasi Räsämäki (born 1966) is a Finnish Art Photographer. He studied photography in the Lahti polytechnic and has worked actively in Art Photography and as a teacher. In 2018 he participated in the exhibition on increasing inequality Does it feel familiar? – Photographs of everyday life in Finland in the Finnish Museum of Photography. Works of Räsämäki are included in the collections of the Helsinki Art Museum, the Joensuu Art Museum and Finnish Museum of Photography.

Marja Söderlund
Islanders
2021

From the point of view of places and objects, a person's lifetime is a short visit, as evidenced by the things left behind. I have shot the photos for my exhibition on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. In Pori, the Ahlainen archipelago, on an old fishing farm, which used to be the place where my relatives lived and worked. The artifacts associated with this lost way of life are, without the user's knowledge, silent secrets, but intrinsically valuable. In filming situations, they were tools of thought and imagination, through which I looked for visible phenomena related to the place and got in touch with previous users. My works are accompanied by short, opening texts and old dialect words that I have heard used. According to the dictionary of Finnish dialects, the word in the name of the exhibition, house fish, means a fish staying in the same waters.

Marja Söderlund (b. 1960, Köyliö) is a photo artist who graduated from the School of Art and Design (now Aalto University) living in Helsinki and deals with the layered experience and interpretation of place and time in her often constructed and collage-based works. His latest exhibitions from 2022 are a solo exhibition in Pori and a photo book-themed group exhibition in Vaasa.

Anne Kalliola
Greetings from Jämsä
2020

What if is the dialogue and the overlap between the imagined and what is real. Courage and shyness. Love and fear. Despite all the scrambling, the dreaming may continue. What if one happens to love dreaming despite its clumsiness?

What if
Someone

Me?

Anne Kalliola (b.1978, Jyväskylä) is a photo artist from Muurame. She has graduated from University of Lapland. She has 20 years of experience from visual communications in commercial world. Her works have been displayed in numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Finland and abroad. Kalliola’s photographs feature storytelling on many different levels, physicality, and humorous views on the feeling of being separated from others.

Päivi Röppänen (b.1980, Kemi) is a writer from Mikkeli. She has graduated from theatre and drama research, University of Tampere. Her texts for the exhibition study presentation and the interface between being an outsider and in touch.

The centre organized a photography-focused media camp for young people during the fall school holidays. During the week, observations were made with mobile phones and an exhibition was produced from the photos. Exhibition was open just for one evening on Friday 28 October 2022 from 17:00 to 24:00, when the Night of Museums event was organized in Mikkeli. Total of 1,400 people attended the event.

The series Back to Nature deals with disappearing small villages in the countryside as well as individual farms and houses. The topic is therefore close to me, because I walk in the woods with my dogs every day, and the whole idea and atmosphere of the series of works was born there. It is created by my own experiences and memories, but still reality. This is increasingly part of the current Finnish rural landscape. The small farms and other dwellings that were cleared a long time ago are disappearing back into nature.

Martti Matilainen (b. 1948, Helsinki) is a visual artist from Pieksämäki. He was graduated as a sculptor from The Fine Arts Academy of Finland. In the recent years he has mainly made photographic art. He has held numerous private exhibitions in different parts of Finland and participated in group exhibitions and art competitions, for which he has received several awards (e.g. Fotofinlandia finalist 2016). Matilainen's subjects are versatile, sometimes a bit opinionated, and their central subject is usually human life.

Photojournalism NOW! is an exhibition curated by photographer Olli Jaatinen (b. 1960, Mikkeli) that features the work of six editorial and press photographers. This exhibition is a continuation of the Arkemme kuvittajat (Our Daily Illustrators) exhibition compiled by Jaatinen in 2005, which included Juhani Niiranen, Timo Pyykkö and Liisa Takala. In addition to them, Jaakko Avikainen, Rio Gandara and Ella Kiviniemi are presented as “new” photographers. The exhibition has been supported by the JOKES – Foundation for the Promotion of Journalistic Culture.

Jaakko Avikainen (b. 1959, Varkaus) began his journey as a press photographer in Savon Sanomat in the early 1980’s. He had his most significant career in Helsinki in the service of the Finnish photo agency Lehtikuva, where he was also awarded several times. Avikainen ended his career in Länsi-Savo newspaper in 2021. Now he is retired.

Rio Gandara (b. 1977, Bandung, Indonesia) received an Apprenticeship in Photography from Timo Junttila Studio in 2007–2009. From 2010 to 2013, he worked as a freelance photographer, and since 2013 at Helsingin Sanomat. Acknowledgments include e.g. Sports Photo of the Year (Finnish Photojournalists Association) 2018 and Patricia Seppälä Foundation's Photojournalist Award 2022.

Ella Kiviniemi (b. 1991, Helsinki) is a photographer and filmmaker. She studied photojournalism at the University of Tampere in 2011–17 and in Denmark in 2015–16. Kiviniemi is currently studying at Aalto University in the master's program in photography, with a minor in film editing. She has worked as a press photographer for e.g. Aamulehti, Keskipohjanmaa and Helsingin Sanomat. In the Finnish Photojournalism Competition 2021, Kiviniemi was awarded the Reportage of the Year Award.

Juhani Niiranen (b. 1959, Ylöjärvi) has a master's degree in political science (University of Turku, 1990). He received his degree in photography from the Lahti Institute of Design in 1995. After a period as a freelance photographer, Niiranen has worked as a staff photographer for Helsingin Sanomat since 2006.

Timo Pyykkö (b. 1973 Imatra) is an editorial photographer living in Helsinki. After graduating from the Lahti Institute of Design (1999), he has worked for A-lehdet Oy for the first 14 years. For several years now, his work has also included filming and editing. During his career, Pyykkö has been awarded e.g. in the Finnish Photojournalism Competition and as the Editorial Photographer of the Year.

Liisa Takala (b. 1966, Mäntyharju) is a Helsinki-based photographer who graduated from the Lahti Institute of Design in 1994. She has also been lecturing about portrait photography at the University of Tampere. Takala has been awarded as the Press Photographer of the Year, among other mentions. Takala belongs to the ”Vapaat naiset” (Free Women) group, which in the autumn of 2017 published the book Kaupunkisaunoja (Gummerus).

Paavo Jussi-Pekka (1936–2014) acquired the pilot's qualifications in 1970. He made aerial photographs for several clients, including urban and road planning, Mikkeli's water and environmental district, architectural firms and forestry owners. In addition to flying, Jussi-Pekka was the airport manager at Mikkeli Airport.

Photography was a hobby for Jussi-Pekka, which he handled well. Aerial photography is a demanding area of photography. Paavo flew alone and used handheld camera because the vibration of the engine would have caused unsharpness when using the tripod.

Back in the 1990s, most aerial photography was subject to authorization. For photographing certain sites - such as bridges and railways, there a written permission was needed from the Operational Department of the Aviation Board.


The long-time photographer, journalist and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Länsi-Savo, Erkki Kakkonen (1925–2014), started as a photographer in the Mikkeli Sanomat in the early 1950s. Initially, his interest focused on sports photography. Since sports were usually only on weekends, Erkki started photographing "pictures of the day" on everyday life: first snow, summer carpet laundry on the river etc. Kakkonen became editor-in-chief of Länsi-Savo in 1976, when the photographing was left to the younger journalists in the house.

The aerial photographs of the now presented video installation were filmed in the 1960s on 6x6 black and white film and digitized at the Centre in the fall of 2020 by Mikko Mäkeläinen.

Erkki Kakkonen's heir has donated Erkki's pictorial estate to the Mikkeli Centre of Photography.

Several random factors, independent of us, define where and what kind of people we are born as. Each of us is a unique individual. We cannot remember our birth, but will we eventually be able to realize that we have just died? The name of the exhibition refers to a mathematical equation that results in ‘infinity’ or ‘error’. It also refers to a kind of balance or its impossibility.

Is the consciousness living in our bodies unique? We are able to clone matter: meat and tissue. But could the soul also be cloned? And does the soul have gender? In the physical body, we are basically determined by biological gender. We can accept, reject or question it. If we wish, we can try to correct it.

The images in the exhibition are the result of these reflections in 2002–2022. The theme is also supported by the short film Original, completed in 2019.

Tero Puha (b. 1971) a photographer, visual artist and filmmaker working with digital and analog media.

Puha has worked in Helsinki, London, Paris, Berlin and New York. His art has been exhibited internationally and can be found in the collections of several art museums. Puha was awarded with Finnish State Prize in Photographic Arts in 2014.

In his creative work, he often explores the life of the modern individual, focusing on body image, identity, gender roles and consumerism. Attempts to define the line between the natural and the unnatural are bound to create conflicts and pressures for the modern individual in search of identity and purpose in life. They are the sources of Puha’s inspiration. Tero Puha´s work is supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Over the decades, at least Väinö Bremer, Erkki Kakkonen and Paavo Jussi-Pekka have photographed Mikkeli from the air. They have all been experienced pilots and usually they have flown alone when photographing.

Before moving to Ristiina's Honkaharju Estate in 1933, Väinö Bremer had just made an exclusive flight around the Earth with his Junkers plane, which is now hanging on the roof of the departure hall of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

In 2012, I edited a book called Bird’s Eye View of Mikkeli from the shots of pilot Paavo Jussi-Pekka. To avoid using the same name, I now ended up with the additional phrase “bird vision”. It tells me, I think, about the feeling when you’ve got on your wings, detached from the earth’s crust, and gliding above everyday at a height of about thousand feet. The magic of leaving your normal state of mind and watching the view with your new eyes. Through the eyes of a bird. How enchanting!

Since I do not have the pilot's license, I have used the services of the Mikkeli Aviation Association: Kai Vana, the chairman of the association, has flown me twice in 2014 and 2015. I then submitted the upcoming book Mikkeli - A City in Transformation, which includes a few of my shots. There are about twenty of my previously unseen pictures in this show. Lots of details in large prints. Improvements to the Highway 5 are underway, as well as a Jurassic Rock event on the Kenkävero Peninsula.

Olli Jaatinen (b. 1960, Haukivuori) is an established photographer from Mikkeli. In addition to dozens of exhibitions, he has focused on making picture books for the past fifteen years, which he has already done sixteen. In addition to numerous own books, Jaatinen edits a new book by Leo Montonen (1905–1968), a photographer from Puumala. Jaatinen is an honorary member of the Finnish Association of Photographic Artists.

20.1.–12.3.2022*
Hall, Lounge, Galleries I and II: Olli Jaatinen: Bird Vision – Aerial Photos of Mikkeli
Gallery III: Photojournalism 2020 slideshow (Finnish Photojournalists' Association)

17.3.–7.5.2022
Hall, Lounge, Galleries I–III: Tero Puha

19.5.–20.8.2022
Hall: The Life in Inkilänhovi in the Early 20th Century as Depicted by Miller Siblings
Gallery III: Aerial Photos by Paavo Jussi-Pekka and Erkki Kakkonen

9.6.–20.8.2022 (extended time)
Hall, Lounge, Gallery I: Documentary Photo NOW!
(Jaakko Avikainen, Rio Gandara, Ella Kiviniemi, Juhani Niiranen, Timo Pyykkö, Liisa Takala)
Gallery II: Pekka Sipilä: Anti-war cartoons
Gallery III: The life in Inkilänhovi in the Early 20th Century as Depicted by Miller Siblings

3.11.–10.12.2022
Hall & Lounge: Marja Söderlund **
Galleries I & II: Anne Kalliola – Päivi Röppänen **
Gallery III: The Life in Inkilänhovi in the Early 20th Century as Depicted by Miller Siblings

______

*Mikkeli Centre of Photography began its exhibition season 2022 by opening a unique and diverse view of the local environment by previously unseen aerial photography. Maintaining sustainable development requires not only a sense of local identity, but also an appreciation, care and respect for our common world.

The Cultural Path of Media Education was organized for schoolchildren with video streams from the Centre.

** These are our exhibitions No. 282–283.

8.1.–13.2.2021
Hall & Lounge: Taneli Eskola
Galleries I ja II: Martti Jämsä
Gallery III: Historical Mikkeli Collection

18.2.–8.5.2021

Henrik Duncker's series Finland by Chance (Suomea sattumoisin) is based on a random algorithm which calculated geographical coordinates for 100 spots around Finland. At first glance Duncker's pictures may appear dry and deadpan, but the multi-layered character of them is seeping sharp observations balanced with humour and irony. The project consists of meticulous compositions in documentary style, in which the chaotic too is beautiful. How Finland really looks today? Is this a proposal for new national landscapes?

Henrik Duncker (b. 1963, Helsinki) is a Helsinki-based photographer who graduated from The University of Arts and Design, Helsinki, in 1993. His works have been shown in numerous solo and group shows in Finland and abroad. Duncker's works are for the most part documentary style observations made during long term projects.

Every image may tell a story, but one rarely comes to think that there is always another story behind every story, another destiny.

One Dot Rules Them All is an ensemble of conceptual photographic works that deals with different painful points of life from a humorous perspective by combining text and found images together. The works of the exhibition are connected through different concrete as well as conceptual points such as a camera lens or a breaking point. Those different points tend to lead the viewer behind the surface of the image towards private experiences, thoughts, and feelings and they also talk about a slightly different story than the story that we may see at first glance. These unfolding thoughts, emotions and stories are both fictional and true.

Heli Kaskinen (b. 1981, Järvenpää) is a visual artist who mainly works with humorous and conceptual photography. In her work Kaskinen combines text, found photographs and objects in a playful and insightful manner. Her works draw on self-reflection and deal with the shadows of life with a unique and recognizable touch. Kaskinen received her MFA Degree from the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of The Arts Helsinki in 2017. At the moment Kaskinen is finalizing her MA Degree in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Espoo, Finland. During the last couple of years her works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions.

This exhibition is a compilation of the Centre's summer 2021 exhibition Lake Saimaa in My Heart, which was assembled from the centre's collections. It contains pictures by photographers from South Savo taken over a time period of one hundred years. The exhibition focuses on pictures taken in the lake areas of Mikkeli, Ristiina, Anttola and Puumala.

The philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer states that a portrait is not just an image nor a copy of reality – a portrait is a memory and manifestation of the person it represents. Ideas of the portrait can also be found in graphic representations and symbols such as family coats of arms. In portraiture imitation of reality (mimesis) and representation are strongly connected to the continuum of Western culture. Identities, ideologies, and various historical conventions of representation shape our perception of portrait. Portraiture is a unique art category and portraits creates constant tension. Well-known portraits have even been destroyed because they have represented their subjects in an unfavorable context.

Lauri Eriksson (b. 1965, Helsinki)) works with portraits, landscapes and archival objects. The fragility of modern life and the tradition of art history serve as the inspiration for his projects. His work has been published in national and international magazines and exhibited in art galleries and museums at home and abroad. Eriksson has published photography books, including Suomi Pictures, Bitter & Sweet and a nonfiction book Hirvenvasa ja kerjäläinen about ancient artifacts. Lauri Eriksson holds a master's degree (Master of Arts) in Cultural Heritage Studies, Art History, from University of Helsinki. Lauri Eriksson is currently studying in the Doctoral Programme in History and Cultural Heritage, University of Helsinki. In autumn 2021, Parvs Publishing Company will publish Eriksson's photography book Sumunhimmeä maisema – Polaroideja lähiluonnosta. http://www.erikssonpictures.com

Vilma Pimenoff (b. 1980, Sastamala) often works with everyday objects and imagery from popular culture and uses them as material to study different cultural conventions, their meaning, and the way the meaning is formed. Her artworks deal with how we understand the world around us through signs and symbols. By placing an object out of its assumed context, or altering its size, it can perhaps be seen in a new way. When presenting the familiar in an unexpected way, she questions the myths and stereotypes that the existing popular imagery represents and fortifies. Vilma Pimenoff’s works have been shown at the Photographers’ Gallery in London, Moscow Multimedia Art Museum, Circulation(s) photography festival in Paris, Istanbul Billboard 2020, as well as in galleries in Europe. She has received the Edit- editorial photographer of the year –prize for her work for the Finnish Image –magazine. Vilma Pimenoff holds a master’s degree in photography (LCC, University of the Arts London), and she lives and works currently in Helsinki. http://www.vilmapimenoff.com

Johannes Romppanen (b. 1982, Helsinki) is a photographer living in Espoo. He is interested in humanity and its complex nature. Romppanen has made a photobook about the life with his daughter, Lilja. She has severe cerebral palsy and the family spent a lot of time in the hospitals during her first years. The book received the Finnish Photobook of the Year 2019 award. http://www.johannesromppanen.com

Perttu Saksa (b. 1977, Jyväskylä) is Finnish contemporary artist. He has graduated (MFA) in fine arts from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and photography (BA) from the Lahti University of Applied Science and studied art in Icelandic Academy of Arts 1999. Perttu’s photography and video works have been exhibited in various galleries and museums around Europe, including Stadtgalerie Kiel, Felleshus Berlin and Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki City Art Museum and Kiasma – Contemporary Art Museum of Finland. His works can also be found in various public collections. In 2014 he won The Fotofinlandia Prize, in 2017 he was a nominee for Ars Fennica Prize and in 2018 he was granted The Pro Finlandia Medal. Currently he is working with his second monograph Dark Atlas, to be published by Kehrer Verlag later this year. Beside artistic work Saksa is known for his portraiture. He's commissioned work has been awarded various times, including Grafia, New York Festivals and Edit competition awards. Perttu Saksa lives and works in Raasepori, Finland. http://www.perttusaksa.com

Nita Vera (b. 1986, Helsinki) is a visual artist of Chilean and Finnish descent, combining photography, text, cinematography, installation and book formats in her work. Her subject matter deals with questions around the human condition and relationships. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Finnish Museum of Photography, Art Center Mältinranta and the photography festival Encontros da Imagem in Braga, Portugal as well as in group exhibitions in Fotografisk Center in Copenhagen, Kunshalle in Helsinki, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Oslo Kunstforening, Benaki Museum in Athens among others. Her first book What Love Weighs was published in 2015. In 2016 her artist’s book Spatial Practices was nominated for the Nordic Dummy Award and Unseen Dummy Award. She has graduated from the Aalto University, School of Art, Design and Architecture. http://www.nitavera.net

The Hair Washed by the Rainwater is a formalistic study of a landscape. The simple and minimal photographs of the water, the trees, and the stones can be seen as a reconstruction of a picturesque lake landscape. Beneath the surface of the geometrical beauty, it also raises questions about how the nature around us is harnessed for economical purposes. Where do we draw the line between natural and artificial? What is real nature?

REMEMBRANCE
Simo Ripatti

Remembrance is a rendition of the classification that we use to perceive the world and to create various groupings and structures. It does not aim to define the concept of classification or even its necessity. Rather, it serves as a basis for examing questions of this nature.

Simo Ripatti (b. 1975, Mikkeli) is a visual artist MA. In Ripatti’s production, the impact of the works is often based on subtlety and surprise. An active element in the works is the use of space. http://simoripatti.com

LAKE SAIMAA IN MY HEART
Images from the Centre's Collection

Wednesday–Friday 11.00–17.00
Saturday 11.00–15.00
Sunday–Tuesday closed
Closed on Midsummer week Fri–Sat 24–25 June

The centre is fully accessible by wheelchair.

Due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation in Finland, hand sanitizer is available for the visitors and the staff takes care of the safety measures and distances.

Mikkeli Centre of Photography's summer exhibition Lake Saimaa in My Heart was assembled from the centre's collections, which contain many pictures by photographers from South Savo taken over a time period of one hundred years. The exhibition focused on pictures taken in the lake areas of Mikkeli, Ristiina, Anttola and Puumala.

The exhibition provided a view of a nostalgic, eternal summer in Lake Saimaa. The exhibition included works by six photographers and one 8mm movie maker. The body of the exhibition consisted of pictures from the 1950s and 1960s by the Studio Sihvonen, which was located in Puumala.

Most of the old photographs in the exhibition were edited and printed using contemporary technology at the Mikkeli Centre of Photography by Olli Jaatinen and Mikko Mäkeläinen.

Erkki Kakkonen (1925–2014) started as a photographer in Mikkelin Sanomat in the early 1950s. Kakkonen became the editor-in-chief of newspaper Länsi-Savo in 1976. In the exhibition, Kakkonen's work Description of a Cruise was featured among other works.

Leo Montonen (1905–1968) was born in the Puumala archipelago where he lived all his life. Montonen took up photography at the age of 18 in 1923. He worked as a travelling photographer mainly in the summertime, touring the Saimaa archipelago. Montonen’s pictorial legacy consists of nearly a thousand glass negatives and prints.

Jouko Palonen (1913–2012) was a principal and a history teacher in Helsinki. Photography was one of his many hobbies. The exhibition featured Jouko Palonen's 8mm cine film from Anttola in the 1960s, where Palonen's family had a summer place on the shores of Sappulanselkä.

Veikko Salmela (1930–2016) was a stonemason and photographer from Mikkeli. Salmela was a paddler at the national level and a hiker as well. These hobbies were reflected in his pictures.

Lahja Sihvonen (1892–1967), and later his son Kalervo Sihvonen (1918–1973), had a photo studio in Puumala since the 1920s. Lahja focused on studio photography, Kalervo also photographed everyday situations and leisure activities.

Juha "Norppa" Taskinen (b. 1958, Sääminki) is a documentary filmmaker, nature photographer and author. In his work, he has especially focused on the Saimaa ringed seal and the nature of the Lake Saimaa.

In the autumn of 2020, Pave Maijanen wrote the foreword to his exhibition:

In the summer of 2020, I held the first photo exhibition of my life in Kesälahti, curated by photographic artist Stefan Bremer. He has been a great help in these projects. Steffe has made all the prints and he was with me choosing the pictures to display.

The title of the exhibition Picture and Light comes from the fact that I never use flash light, but natural light is something that is interesting to play with.”

Pekka Juhani “Pave” Maijanen (1950–2021) is known for his extensive career as a musician. During his career, he worked as a singer, songwriter, bassist, drummer, keyboardist, guitarist and producer. Less well known is his work as a photographer. Organizing his own photo exhibition was one of his last wishes.