Helsinki Photo Festival’s most popular projects
The theme of the sixth edition of the Helsinki Photo Festival is Courage. Exhibitions in outdoor spaces, cultural institutions, and at popup events showcase work from 24 countries. Helsinki Photo Festival is open until 30 October Hulu Photo Festival has showcased some of the most popular projects of the year, including the bridge between Quemoy and Lieyu Island, China, and a project to commemorate the bravery and resilience of the civilian population of Ukraine in the face of overwhelming violence. The project examines the tension between the two countries and examines how they can coexist. The projects include portraits of Ukrainian women who fled from war in their temporary homes in Switzerland, Spanish miners' stories of the end of an era and Spanish coal mining, and retired professional dancer Maria del Carmen Silva who started a ballet school for girls whose families could not afford classes. Other projects such as The Cumbias We Heard Up There include the ongoing tension between these worlds in the west and Indigenous people, while gym owners, trainers, and families rely heavily on their earnings.
Veröffentlicht : vor 2 Jahren durch in Lifestyle
• Quemoy is a small island controlled by Taiwan, but so close to mainland China that you can see its shoreline. In 2016 an agreement was made to build a bridge between Quemoy and Lieyu Island, China, leaving its citizens conflicted about becoming a ‘Peace Experimental Zone’ between the two countries. Eriksen engaged a local school in interpreting the tensions, hopes and fears of the island’s residents
• This project serves as a testament to the bravery and resilience of the civilian population of Ukraine in the face of overwhelming violence. Through documenting the human toll of this tragedy, Smith hopes to honour the memory of those who lost their lives and pay tribute to the courage of those who continue to endure
• Environmental defenders and Indigenous healers in Peru are risking their lives to protect their last spiritual connection to the Amazon’s biodiversity. The Asháninka, Bora and Matsés healers maintain that their expertise in the specific uses of plants is the result of dialogues with the spirits of the plants themselves. But the Amazon’s Indigenous people are disappearing and, along with them, their unique body of knowledge about the region’s rarest plants
• Wimmerlin photographed Ukrainian women who fled from war in their temporary homes in Switzerland. Dressed the same as on the day they left, each woman’s story of escape is depicted in her portraits. Each is photographed in a corner, a metaphor of the Russian invasion. She asked the women to show what they had packed. The results were often surprising, even to the women themselves. Each item became a symbol of their homes and their once peaceful lives
• Lys Arango’s grandparents settled in the mining basin of Asturias in northern Spain in the 1950s, when coal mining was the engine of the region’s economic development. Spain’s entry into the European Economic Community triggered the countdown to the eventual closure of the mines. This decline has marked the landscape and the population. Arango returned to the region to photograph the end of an era and collect the stories of the last miners
• Musa’s Struggle and Search for The Stage by Alon Skuy Motha Musa’s leg was amputated when he was 11, after being diagnosed with cancer. He had dreams of being a professional football player but quickly realised that he would not be able to pursue this dream. He joined the Vuyani Dance Theatre in Johannesburg last year and found his passion
• This is the story of Gabriella and her dream of a self-sufficient traditional lifestyle, a story about courage, determination and strength. She settled in the forest outside a small village in Sweden some 20 years ago, aiming to live without schedules, mortgages and a boss, but the hardships of her life are far from the urban dream of a quiet life in the countryside
• ‘The prototype of a classical ballet dancer usually does not fit the characteristic physique of Peruvians: neck, trunk, arms commonly short, short stature … that should not be a stigma or a barrier.’ This is how Maria del Carmen Silva, a retired professional dancer, explains why she started a ballet school for girls whose families could not afford classes. She wanted to break away from stereotypes and make it inclusive, regardless of money or physique. Currently, 13 girls from the low-income areas of Lima receive free classes at Mari Carmen school
• Poverty forces many residents of Isaan to seek work in Bangkok, but fearing the temptations of city life, children are often left behind under the care of grandparents. To keep them out of trouble, kids are enrolled in Muay Thai training camps – the traditional boxing that is Thailand’s national sport – as early as five years old and compete by six or seven. The children dream of one day fighting on TV, building a house for their parents and honouring their community, while gym owners, trainers, and families rely heavily on their earnings
• The Cumbias We Heard Up There by Fernanda Soto Mastrantonio Deysi is a 36-year-old Aymara woman from the highlands of Chile. She raises her llamas and alpacas to sell their meat and wool, keeping alive her ancestors’ values of deep respect and care for nature. Two worlds converge in her, those of the west and of Indigenous people. Mastrantonio’s ongoing project examines the tension between them and how they can coexist
Themen: Arts