The Helsinki School: From the Past to the Future

Published by: Hatje Cantz, 2014
Format: 29.50 x 24.50 cm, hardcover
Pages: ca. 256 pages, ca. 180 illustrations
Texts: Holger Broeker, Alistair Hicks,Erika Hoffman-Koenige,
Andréa Holzherr,Timothy Persons, Lyle Rexer, Pari Stave,
Christoph Tannert, Jyrki Parantainen
Language: English
Graphic design by: Hannes Aechter
ISBN 978-3-7757-3901-6
Hatje Cantz

I find it amazing that after twenty years of existence, the Helsinki School cannot be defined by any one fixed point of view. Conceptually there is a red thread connecting one generation to another in the way they perceive and present their ideas but not necessarily in how they apply them.
Timothy Persons (introduction)

Following the first four volumes of the Helsinki School, this new publication looks back at the development of this group of photographers over the past twenty years and traces the emergence of the photographic tendency bearing this name.

In a collection of essays, international curators, art critics, and museum directors describe their encounters with the Helsinki School, from the first exhibitions in the late nineties to the youngest generation of photographers. A discussion between Timothy Persons and Alistair Hicks concludes these contributions. The texts are accompanied by installation shots from numerous international exhibitions, archival materials, books, posters, invitations, and most recent works by the different generations of artists.

Maanantai Collective
Nine Nameless Mountains

Published by: Kehrer Verlag in 2013.
Format: 17 x 21 cm, Linen softcover with open spine
Pages: 104 pages, 70 color illustrations
Editor: Maanantai Collective
Authors: Maanantai Collective
Artists: Maanantai Collective
Designed by: Maanantai
Language: English
ISBN 978-3-86828-422-5
http://www.artbooksheidelberg.com/html/detail/de/maanantai-978-3-86828-422-5.html

Maanantai is formed by a group of young photographers from Helsinki. It all started after a succession of Monday meetings, when they decided to escape North to the Norwegian Lofoten Islands, where Nine Nameless Mountains became their story. Challenging the notion of authorship with a body of work made by one common author with 16 eyes, it is a poetical and absurd topographical exploration of the notion of distance and scales – latitude versus altitude.

The book follows the group experimentations, with the mountain as a "leitmotif”, the escaping horizon as a metaphor for life and the impossibility to reach an absolute goal; it revisits the genre of the road-trip with an impish attitude and curiosity towards the unknown. On their way North, the artists played together with natural elements -stones, waves, light, sand, clouds – to create a playfully confusing story, their motive for the celebration of friendship, photography and chance.

"The book was more than any other aspects of the project a space for experimentation, our common territory for tries and surprises. A place where each of us was confronted with the visions of the others and where we could go beyond any individual copyright. We perceived the book as a strong medium; it has its own weight on the ground, like a rock.”

Further information:
www.deutscher-fotobuchpreis.de/html/sieger.htm
http://www.artbooksheidelberg.com/html/de/aktueller_verlagstip.html
http://cargocollective.com/maanantaicollective

The Helsinki School
Vol. 4 - A Female View

Published by: Hatje Cantz in 2011.
Format: 29.00 x 24.00 cm, hardcover
Pages: 192 pages., ca. 190 color illustrations
Edited: Aalto University - School of Art and Design
Texts: Andrea Holzherr, Timothy Persons
Artists: Elina Brotherus, Nanna Hänninen, Maarit Hohteri Wilma Hurskainen, Tiina Itkonen, Ulla Jokisalo, Aino Kannisto, Sanna Kannisto, Sandra Kantanen, Eeva Karhu, Marjaana Kella,
Milja Laurila, Anni Leppälä, Jaana Maijala, Susanna Majuri, Riitta Päiväläinen, Nelli Palomäki, Marjukka Vainio, Ea Vasko, Niina Vatanen, Saana Wang, Pernilla Zetterman
Designed by: Margarethe 'Hausstätter, Claudia Stein
Language: English
ISBN 978-3-7757-3211-6
http://www.hatjecantz.de/the-helsinki-school-2991-1.html

The fourth volume of the books of the Helsinki School focuses on female artists, inquiring into the possibility of a special female point of view. Innovative concepts and techniques as well as a variety of forms distinguish the work of this generation of photographers – the spectrum ranges from Tiina Itkonen´s documentary style pictures of Greenland and Anni Leppälä´s theatrically staged interiors to the painterly nature studies by Sandra Kantanen.