Hello my friend! Even it’s still winter up here in the north, today you can already feel the spring in the air. Finally we are going towards the light 😊❄️🌞
I have some good exhibition news for you as well. We will have a New Ghosts exhibition in Kunsthalle Turku (Turun Taidehalli) during next summer. So happy to hit the road again with my favourite artist, my daughter Astrid. ⭐️
I Love Dogs at VB Photo Centre, 4.12.2020–28.2.2021.
Why have I photographed Finnish men whose identities include pup play?
After my best friend died the people around me reacted in different ways to our common loss. The coping of this sudden and unwanted reminder of how limited also our own lives are, took different shapes for all of us. For one of my friends these existential questions strengthened the idea of not only being a father, but also a dog.
I often photograph things I want to learn more about or get to know better. This series was born from the need to understand my friend better, because at least from my perspective, the transformation from a father with seemingly traditional values to a dog was quite big.
My friend has been incredibly brave and I’m proud and happy that he doesn’t need to hide or be ashamed of this part of his life anymore when he is with me.
Photographing this series has been a great adventure and I have learned a lot not only about people, but also dogs and myself. It is actually unbelievably relaxing to drive on the parking lot of the local supermarket with a rubber dog in the backseat that puffs to the mailman passing by. At that moment you don’t think about life or death, you just feel pure joy.”
Aki-Pekka Sinikoski, Photographer
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”It has been great that Peki (Aki-Pekka) wanted to get to know this part of life which is important to me. We have been driving around Finland, talked a lot and photographed doggies in the gay scene. Many have felt that it is remarkable and important to be able to be part of this photo series and exhibition. There is still a lot of stigma connected to the fetishes and many in the gay fetish scene has needed to come out twice; first as a sexual minority person and then as a fetishist.
Fetish and BDSM lifestyle has followed me from my childhood, but the road to self-
acceptance has been long. After our common friend passed away, I realized how limited life is and how important it is to live as ourselves. It has felt liberating that I have finally been able to be my own kind of me also with Peki. The fact that I haven’t needed to hide one part of my life from him, has also deepened our friendship.”
Sam the Guardian Dog
WOW!!!! We made it!!! The photo series we have been working on with my daughter Astrid since 2011 has been selected to Photo Vogue Festival in Milan, Italy!!! VOGUE!!! I mean freaking VOGUE!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
More information can be found here: www.vogue.it
WOW!!! We just received the message that we have been chosen through thousands of photographers and now our photos are nominated to PHOTO VOGUE FESTIVAL ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ We are so happy already now… We have made it together all these years and let’s hope we will make it all the way to Milan.
PEACE & LOVE,
AKI & ASTRID
PS… VOGUE!!! That is VOGUE!!! How great is that!!!?!?! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
PPS. Happy midsummer’s midnight to all of you ☀️🌙❤️
New Ghosts is now Blue Ghosts. During these extra ordinary times it’s important to protect all of us. That is why our exhibition in Jyväskylä is closed and wrapped in blue at the moment. If the situations gets better in a month, we will reopen the exhibition between April 14 and April 26.
If not, we hope to see you in Helsinki at Hippolyte Gallery in October or in the Northern Photographic Centre in Oulu at the end of the year.
Thank you for the wonderful exhibition opening in Gallery Ratamo. The atmosphere was warm and beautiful and we really could feel connected to you. Thank you for all your kind words and thank you for sharing your stories and thoughts. After the opening, it was snowing and we were so happy, grateful and full of life.
Our warm greetings go also to läänintaiteilija Marko Hämäläinen who interviewed us. –You have one of the biggest hearts in the whole wide world!
For those of you who haven’t seen the New Ghosts exhibition yet, you have the chance to see it at Gallery Ratamo in Jyväskylä until 29 March.
After Jyväskylä the following New Ghosts exhibitions in Finland will take place at
–Gallery Hippolyte in Helsinki (October 2020)
–Northern Photographic Centre in Oulu (November 2020)
More New Ghosts exhibitions outside of Finland will be published soon. See you on the road.
Stay safe. You are important!
❤️ Aki & Astrid
All the photos in this post by Emmi Minkkinen
The first New Ghosts exhibition in 2020 will take place 5.–29.3. at the beautiful Gallery Ratamo in Jyväskylä.
You are welcome to the opening 4 March at 5 pm. There will be a New Ghosts Artist Talk hosted by regional artist (läänintaiteilija) Marko Hämäläinen and we’ll stay in the gallery together with Astrid even after the official program, so I’m sure you’ll have a chance to chat with us if you feel like that. We have worked with these images since 2011 and YES, we are super proud of this exhibition, so it’ll be a pleasure to share it with you.
I will also have a photo workshop in Jyväskylä on 29 March so even if we don’t know too many people in Jyväskylä region – yet! – we hope that will change pretty soon.
Peace & Love, Aki & Astrid
My body is already in Finland but my mind is still in Moscow, Russia. Here are some photos from New Ghosts exhibition (by me and my daughter Astrid) running at the fantastic The Lumiere Brothers Center photo gallery until December 15th.
So if you are in Moscow do not miss this one 😊
The exhibition at The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography is made in collaboration with Finnish Embassy in Moscow and the exhibition is curated by Tuula Alajoki.
And for all our New Ghosts fans out there: Do not worry. We are going to have at least three big gallery and museum exhibitions next year in Finland as well so you will finally see our works in Finland, too.
Big exhibition update! New Ghosts is part of the Off Bratislava exhibition in Slovakia starting next week.
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In November New Ghosts will also be exhibited in Lumiere Brothers Center of Photography, Moscow.
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And yes, we have some great news for our Finnish friends as well. In 2020 we will do not only one, or two, but three (3!!!) big gallery and museum exhibitions here in Finland.
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So stay tuned for more information.
Happy to share with you that my Finnish Teens photos are right now part of the Wiesbaden fototage exhibition in Germany. So if you happen to be in Frankfurt, do yourself a favor and make a day trip to the idyllic Wiesbaden and say greetings to my photos 🙂
Wiesbaden fototage is the oldest photographic biennale in Germany and you can find my photos in the gallery of ”Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst”. Finnish Teens was curated to the exhibition by amazing Katja Maria Nyman.
Peace & Love, Aki-Pekka Sinikoski
