ABOUT
A Versatile Creative Professional
I am a Tallinn, Estonia-based photographer and filmmaker specializing in editorial, street, portrait and travel photography.
I am also a penguin enthusiast, but unfortunately, I do not have any photos of penguins. They live in Southern Hemisphere (whereas I am in Northern Hemisphere).
A self-portrait 2021
A summer evening with my granny
Early days
I was born in Oulu, a seaside city in North Ostrobothnia located only 30 miles south of Lapland (where Santa lives). I am Finnish. As a child, I got used to the contrast of seeing 15 minutes of sunlight in December but enjoying the white nights during summer when the sun does not really set down at all. My hometown is known for the annual Air Guitar World Championships, wood tar, high-tech stuff and the traditional dish “Rössypottu”, a soup made of potatoes, pork, and bloodpalt (blood, beer and rye flour).
I was 12 years old when I got interested in photography and enrolled on an after-school photography class. During high school, my art teacher let me occupy the school’s photography dark room, where I spend most of my teenage years. Don’t worry! It was not as bad as it might sound. The winters in the North are cold, pitch-black and everlasting. This way, I was doing something I am passionate about while mainly staying warm indoors.
After high school, I relocated to South Finland and worked in a newspaper in Lahti. To my
surprise, they let me independently represent the company as a Press
Photographer. I guess I seemed like a responsible young adult!
This
was the time before the digital cameras, internet and mobile phones.
I had a map with me as I drove around my new home town in a company
car, and I had a few coins in my pocket to make a phone call if
needed. It was a great challenge, and I learned a lot.
A bit later, I moved to Tampere, where I studied photography and film in several courses in different institutes. I also made lots of no-budget short films, worked as an assistant in a TV show by Finnish Broadcasting Company and went through countless odd jobs in customer service, sales, maintenance and logistics. Back then cleaning a floor of a bakery early in the morning and packing and shipping computer parts on a night shift was just my meal ticket. Still, later on, these experiences have turned into an endless source of stories and a vast understanding of different working environments.
A media student at Tampere
skills
education
A festival photographer
I was already a few years older than my classmates when I finally went to university. I studied business, media and arts. One day I found myself in London being gently escorted out from the Ealing Studios by their security and in a company of a giggling young French woman named Julie. We were both film students at Thames Valley University. Julie had had a spontaneous idea to go and visit “the oldest studio in the world and the birthplace of thousands of recorded hours of creativity and entertainment”. She had completely ignored my “maybe we should book a tour” comment. That day we had the afternoon off. I modelled for her photography project.
After London, I returned to Finland and settled in Helsinki, but not for long. I graduated. At first, I worked as an Administrator in an international healthcare company and then in Marketing at a Swiss-owned photography company.
At the same time, I got together with a wonderful human being named Kivi, my creative soulmate and later my husband.
On our third date, I had to tell him I had applied and got accepted to post-graduate studies in film at University of Salford. I was planning to move back to the UK. It was a such relief to hear him reply without hesitation: “I have always wanted to live in the United Kingdom. I love the weather and the cuisine! Can I tag along?” (He has a great sense of humour!)
Aachen, Germany 2011
The Dirty Old Town
So, together we moved to the city of Salford, located directly across the River Irwell opposite Manchester in The North West of UK. To the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. 2000s Salford is quite a rough area with rusty, mouldy closed-down factories, ports and canals but also known as the home of many famous Manchuunian bands. We lived only a few blocks away from the iconic Lads Club, established in 1903 as a boys' club and today remembered by many from The Smiths album leaflet. On my daily walks to the university, I passed "the gasworks groft" from the song Dirty Old Town by Ewan McColl (1946).
Our studio near Piccadilly Station at Chapeltown Street Mill
Life there was quite different and inspiring. We made notes, wrote stories, I took photos, and Kivi painted pictures (the bloody paint would not get dry!). We experienced the first proper North West rain. It is not just any heavy rain. No. It pours. It is like a high-pressure washer hitting you from all the possible directions: above, below, and from both sides. And after, it takes days to get yourself dry, and mushrooms start to grow on your still moist shoes.
After a while, I
graduated with a Master of Arts in Film Production (2010). Together
with my classmate Damian we started a Production Company called Into
Production LLP. We did some short films, music videos and even
participated in a couple of Nollywood films.
But what kept us busy were promotional videos for businesses and short documentaries. We worked a lot with the National Health Service (f.e.x. Living with and
beyond cancer -series commissioned by The Christie NHS Foundation).
Shooting a music video at Blackpool on a sunny (!) evening
Making new friends
At the same time, Kivi
continued with his main profession (comics) and started to
concentrate on longer projects: full-length graphic novel books. We
were working together in artist residencies in Italy and France. I
started with Street Photography on our countless journeys across
Europe.
Kivi and I also worked on a Malaysian / UK feature film Haruan The Snakehead (Sambalmee Productions Ltd. 2014) in collaboration with filmmaker/director Razli Dalan.
Our creative team still keeps in contact, and there are new projects
in the pipeline. So, stay tuned!
The journey continues
It was a Spring day in 2014 when Kivi and I sat in a cafe at Freedom Square in Tallinn, Estonia. We were staying at an artist residency on the top floor studio of the house by The Estonian Artists' Association. All of a sudden many old friends came by. The annual meeting of the Estonian Writers Union had just ended. They were thirsty. They saw us and grinned. "We thought You might be here."
So we drank and talked and talked some more. After a while, Kivi and I looked each other in the eye and nodded. These people are positively crazy, and they have brilliant unique ideas. Estonia must be the best place to do creative work.
Then I had a street photography exhibition "Adrift" at Von Krahl Theatre. I was expecting to hear boring technical questions like: are you shooting with 5D. But the Estonians wanted to know the stories behind the photographs. And I was more than happy to tell them. "They understand us", Kivi and I agreed. And that was it. Without saying it out loud, we had decided to move to live in Estonia.
Feedback from the viewers of the exhibition
The present-day
Estonia IS the best
place to do creative work. It has become our home. A home we are very
proud of. We keep on participating in events, keep on collaborating
with talented artists and keep on working. Life is good.
A few highlights
LATEST EXHIBITIONS
SOME HONORS / AWARDS