Opening reception for the exhibition on Tuesday Jan 27th from 5 p.m to 7 p.m. Warm welcome!

The photos selected for this exhibition are taken in Helsinki in 1980. That year was a special one in my life: I had moved from my childhood home in Espoo to live on my own in the city centre of Helsinki. During that year, I ended up dropping out of my technical studies, as photography, which had started as a hobby, had taken a strong hold on me. I found myself spending increasingly longer periods of time in the photo book and magazine sections of libraries and in the darkroom I had built in the toilet of my home.

Helsinki and its people fascinated me: I walked around the city and photographed everything voraciously. I realized how the camera offered a natural way to approach people and opened up access to interesting places. The camera proved to be a natural tool for me to record fleeting moments, moods and events. Click: a glimpse of life sensitized silver crystals on film and the image developed from the film perhaps sensitizes the viewer even after decades.

Most of the images from the Stadi 1980 exhibition are now on display for the first time as prints. I have recently started going through my oldest image material and scanning it into digital format. I have shared these images in a few Facebook groups. I have been delighted by the interest the images have aroused and the memories that have been shared. In this context, the idea of ​​making the images also available as prints matured.

The experiences I had with photography in 1980 led to me now working as a photojournalist for over 40 years. The Stadi 1980 exhibition is not only a return to a significant crossroads in my life, but also the opening of a new chapter.

‍