Vilho Setälä

An off-camera flash in your face and other stories from the Finnish Museum of Photography's collections

The Finnish Museum of Photography houses a substantial collection, one that can sometimes surprize even the museum’s own staff with its variety. If we include every individual negative frame, then the number of photographs totals more than three million.

The exhibition brings a number of very different photographs together in a single space. Among them are works of photographic art, photojournalism, fashion shots, press photos and portraits, by both professionals and amateurs. The oldest are from the 1860s, and the most recent from 2006. This jubilant encounter between photographs of different ages and sizes gives an intimation of the many different meanings that the photograph has had at different times.

The exhibition had its beginnings in the Kokoelmanosto (Picks from the Collection) series on the Museum’s website, which presents photographs from the collection in both pictures and words. But online digital images do not capture the material quality of the photographs, and that is why we now want to put some of these pictures on display to the public as authentic objects.

 

Images and stories from the collections (in Finnish): http://www.valokuvataiteenmuseo.fi/kokoelmat/kokoelmanosto

Exhibition photographers: Fritz Englund, Maija Holma, Nanna Hänninen, Markus Jokela, Ben Kaila, Kalle Kultala, Jouko Leskelä, K-G Roos, Martin Parr, Marja Pirilä, Sakari Pälsi, Merja Salo, Vilho Setälä, Hanna Weselius sekä Petteri Bülow, Juha Saari and Touko Yrttimaa.

The exhibition is also accompanied by the Päin pläsiä (In Your Face) booklet, which presents selected components of the Museum’s collections.

The Finnish Museum of Photography
Process Space, 1st floor

The Cable Factory, Kaapeliaukio 3, staircase G, Helsinki

27.5.–4.9.2011
Images
Address
Kämp Galleria
Mikonkatu 1, 00100 Helsinki
See on the map Kämp Galleria
Opening hours
Mon–Fri 11am–8pm, Sat–Sun 11am–6pm
Tickets
16/6/0 €
Museokortti
Under 18 y.o. free admission
Address
The Cable Factory
Kaapeliaukio 3, staircase G, 00180 Helsinki
See on the map The Cable Factory
Opening hours
Tue–Sun 11 am. – 6 pm. Wed 11 am – 8 pm
Tickets
12/6/0 €, 16/6/0 € from January 1st 2024
Museokortti
Under 18 y.o. free admission