Age is just a number
Hanna Weselius, Mary in Wedding Costume, London, 1997–1998, chromogenic color print. Acquired in 1999 from the exhibition Honeypot Lane.
Photographer Hanna Weselius (b. 1972) wanted to challenge our antiquated notions of age, and our expectations of what elderly life is all about. Mary, who was about 80 when the photograph was taken, is an ex-Catholic nun who used to wander around flea markets looking for elegant outfits. The clothes in the picture were a recent purchase for some friends’ wedding.
“Old people’s lives, like anything else, appear as they are portrayed.”
- Hanna Weselius, 1999
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More on the subject
Everyday Chaos
Collection pick
Markus Jokela (b. 1952), together with journalist Ilkka Malmberg, has made reportages about ordinary Finnish everyday life for magazine Kuukausiliite. In the pictures junk is left lying around, while the camera flash sprays out an even light.
Peeping Tom
Collection pick
In June 1970, Apu magazine published an article illustrated by Kalle Kultala (1924–1991). Kultala captured a Peeping Tom a hundred metres away, sneaking around behind the fence at the Seurasaari nudist beach. At the same time, he unashamedly took snapshots of the naked women on the beach.
Photoshopping before it was cool
Collection pick
Petteri Bülow (b.1961), Juha Saari (b. 1964) and Touko Yrttimaa’s (b. 1947) digitally manipulated photographic works have been made using the ‘Quantel Paintbox’ in YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s, newsroom in 1990. They were slightly ahead of their times, since later in the same year the first version of Photoshop hit the markets.
The Museum's collections
Collections
The collections of the Finnish Museum of Photography include more than two million photographs. The collections focus on 20th-century Finnish photography, and are made up of both selected works by photographers and images from extensive photographic archives. The museum's collection of objects includes thousands of photography-related artefacts. The museum also has a paper archive and a photographic library.