Authors, researchers, musicians, CEOs, artists, grantees, etc for various clients
For top athletes, Covid-19 messed up everything regarding the upcoming Olympics. Competition schedules where wiped clean and sports facilities shut down. However for some athletes, this was an opportunity to truly develop themselves with the spare time on their hands. When the whole world has halted, could this be the moment for Finnish top athletes to take a giant leap forward?
This reportage followed the training of top Finnish athletes during the Corona lockdown in May 2020. Some athletes were granted special exclusive access to closed downs sports facilities, as some had to improvise their way into being able to train at all.
Shot for Veikkaus X-magazine.
When standing by a fresh coal seam, measures to tackle climate change seem very far away, but it is the workers that feel their impact first.
Dirty Job (2017–2022) is a documentary photo story depicting life in coal mines in the US and on Finnish peat bogs. It tells the story of people who work at the forefront of the green transition.
For a century, coal and peat have shaped lives in rural areas. For fossil fuels, people have moved mountains and drained boglands, risking the well-being of the environment and humans in the process. Communities have been built and families have been started on coal and peat.
Over the past couple of decades, the coal industry has gradually withered and not even a profound fossil fuel advocate President Trump could bring it back. Finland’s peat sector has experienced a similar fate, with production dropping three quarters in the past couple of years. Professions that used to be highly respected are now looked down on.
We view the time limits set for carbon neutrality from totally different perspectives. While for some they are a milestone that mark the achievement of sustainability, for those who are personally affected by these decisions, they are deadlines before which peatlands and machines must be made the most of.
As policies designed to stave off climate change are putting an end to the use of fossil fuels, communities are left to face an uncertain future. The old way of life is disappearing faster than a new one can emerge, and the transition is painful.
Dirty Job exhibition was at The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas 3.2.-6.8.2023
The non-fiction book Dirty Job – the winners and losers of climate policies (Likainen työ – ilmastopolitiikan voittajat ja häviäjät) combines investigative journalistic articles and photojournalism to explore local problems from a global perspective. It takes the reader to peatlands, coal mines and a meeting room of a carbon offsetting company to see what the world looks like from the focal point of the green transition.
Order the book here. (Like, 2023)
This project is open to all inquiries. Funded by Maj & Tor Nessling Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Foundation Supporting Finnish Journalistic Culture, Patricia Seppälä Foundation, and Finnfoto Association.
A photo story about the northen town of Finland - Ii.
Shot during a 12hr photo marathon competition - Valto Pernu Photo Marathon http://vppm.fi/en/
1st prize - 2017
Finland is the only country in the EU where homelessness has been decreasing. This small Nordic country is hailed as a model for homelessness work and Finnish expertise is in high demand. One of the factors behind Finland’s success is the Y-Foundation, who rents apartments to those who have experienced homelessness and people with low income. The Foundation’s human yet effective operating model on homelessness is internationally unique.
Home for all – How the Y-Foundation provides homes to those in need presents keys to success in the Foundation’s homelessness work. It also offers a sneak peek into the daily lives of people living in the Foundation’s rental apartments. This handbook is the Y-Foundation’s way of reaching out to everyone who is fighting against homelessness.
Story of the rising number of women working in the Finnish shipyards. Shot for Helsingin Sanomat.
In Finland, hundreds of thousands of people live with a rare disease. These deasiases their selves might not be leathal or even severe, it's the rareness that leaves the diseased and their close ones troubled and alone with their problems. Only a handfull of people in the entire country may carry a disease that has no known cure in the world. Every visit to a doctor is a rollercoaster where no knoledge is certain. Facing different diseases but the same issue, The Rare find comfort in coming together and sharing the little knowledge out there.
Konglu Ezekiel Odupol stands in the bottom a well he dug manually to provide water for his plantation in Kajiado County, Kenya, 9th of October 2016. Rather than choosing the traditional pastorialist Maasai lifestyle, Odupol chose to farm for living. Over the past decade, overwhelming drought has afflicted the Maasai and Odupol's well has been dug deeper and deeper untill now there is barely any water to withdraw. In addition to the increasing drought due to climate change, the wells have gone dry because of sand harvesting the river bottoms. Sand harvesting is a short-sighted mean to make a living, for the people of Kajiado that have no other opportunities.
Shot in streets of Berlin with common Berliners. Commissioned by Nokia.
Finnish social democratic politician and the Governor of the Bank of Finland, Erkki Liikanen, for OP Financial Group magazine Chydenius
Promotional shoot for musician Samae Koskinen by commission from the label Universal Music Finland
Published in the November issue of Image Magazine
In Finland, inmates of a unit in the Satakunta Prison have the opportunity to work in the prison's organic farm. There are some dozen inmates working in this countryside idyll, and the turnover rate is large, typical to an open prison. The farm is the most desirable job in the prison, where inmates have time to think and often take pride in their work.
A few decades ago, Finland had one of the highest rates of imprisonment in Europe. In the 1960s, researchers across the Nordic countries, after investigating how much punishment really helps reduce crime, came to the conclusion it doesn't. After remending its criminal santion system bit by bit, Finland now has one of the lowest crime and recidivism rates in the world.
The Finnish criminal justice system is based on the limitation of freedom, not humanity.
Working process documentation for artist Jussi Juurinen.
Personal project about Finnish athletes training for Rio Olympics.
More and more kids are fantasizing about becoming a pro fighter in the United States. MMA - Mixed Martial Arts - is, by far, the fastest growing sport among the youth. Kids as young as 4 are picking up ’kiddy classes’ taught by the professional MMA fighters.
The sport is tough and looks violent. Most parents still say ”I wouldn't let my kid participate”, even though statistically the sport is safer than soccer.
At the gyms there are communities being formed where kids all ages are mingling and taking care of each other. Strict discipline and respect is taught and children grow up self confident.
Contradiction about the sport is inevitable.
2013-2014 California & Arizona, U.S.A.
Published by Time Lightbox.
Pääministeri Juha Sipilän hallitusohjelmassa 27.5.2015 kirjoitetaan:
”Suomalaiset voivat paremmin ja kokevat pärjäävänsä erilaisissa
elämäntilanteissa. Jokainen ihminen kokee voivansa vaikuttaa, tehdä
valintoja ja ottaa vastuuta. Meillä on vahva yhteenkuuluvuuden tunne.
Kunnioitamme toisiamme. Yhteiskunnassamme vallitsee luottamus.”
Halusin puhua paskapuheesta. Minusta tuntuu, että Suomessa on yhä sallitumpaa puhua paskaa. Valehdella. Vääristellä. Huudella. Sanoa yhtä ja
tehdä toista. Esimerkkiä antaa maamme hallitus, jonka arvot puheen ja
käytännön välillä ovat täysin vastakkaiset. Puhutaan puolesta ja toimitaan
vastaan. Hallitusohjelman väite siitä, että olisimme kehittämässä Suomea
jossa vallitsee yhteenkuuluvuuden tunne ja luottamus, on absurdiudessaan naurettava.
Kuvassa esiintyvä Ari on keski-ikänsä ylittänyt mielenterveyskuntoutuja,
joka on elänyt yli puolet elämästään sairaseläkkeellä eri hoitokodeissa.
Arin katse paljastaa hallituksen bluffin. Hän ei tunne vahvaa
yhteenkuuluvuuden tunnetta. Hänellä ei ole mahdollisuuksia vaikuttaa. Hän ei voi paremmin kuin kahdeksan vuotta sitten, jolloin tapasin hänet
ensikerran. Päinvastoin.
#vuosivaaleista
https://pvf.fi/en/vuosi-vaaleista/
Finnish pop star Antti Tuisku for the cover of Image Magazine
Finnish entrepreneurs for the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Employment.
