MAKING OF: WÖYH! – IKKILLYK

April 15, 2013

“The starting point was that I had several visual ideas and I needed a good photographer. I got several recommendations for Aki-Pekka Sinikoski. When I contacted him I thought that he is “just a great photographer” but in the end I got even so much more than just killer photos! Peki listened carefully to all my ideas, selected the good ones and made them great. He really understood who we are and what we do. He also recommended a perfect graphic designer for us and together they crystalized the whole visual identity to our band (and for our IKKILLYK album, promotional photos, posters, ads, merchandise…) They also designed our webpage and helped with social media, PR and other communicational stuff. Some of these ideas even turned out to be performance concepts to our forthcoming concerts; including steam punk instruments, ballerinas and other pretty avantgardish stuff.
–Brilliant, brilliant stuff done with a great passion!”

/Jussi Hyyrynen, WÖYH!

“I have been working with really interesting stuff lately, but creating a visual wonderland for Finnish band WÖYH! has definetly been one of my favorites. Both members in WÖYH! are pretty well known in Finland as musicians (Jussi Hyyrynen as a lead guitarist in YUP and Antti Hyyrynen aka Hyrde as a lead singer and guitarist in Stam1na) but for WÖYH!’s debut album IKKILLYK they decided to start their own record label Kaskelotti Records.

At the beginning of this project we had long discussions so that I would know excatly what these guys wanted and what they didn’t want: Jussi gave me basically full artistic freedom to do what ever I felt was right. All the time during the project I could strongly feel they trusted me in my vision. Jussi always listened to my thoughts carefully and replied that let’s do this, I trust you. –When I said that I needed ballerinas for these photos he told me he trusted me. Same thing when I said that we absolutely need to have an instrument that looks like Doctor Snuggles (Tohtori Sykerö) has lost his old transmitter in the world of Mad Max – he trusted me. My response to this freedom was these pretty twisted visuals that have got incredible good feedback everywhere. For example based on Nuorgam’s album review WÖYH!’s CD package is not only gorgeus but also an example on why CD as a music format should exist also in the future.

Once again I was happy to work with (yet another Jussi) graphic designer Jussi Karjalainen. There were several reasons why I asked him to be a part of this project. The first one is that he is a hell of a graphic designer. The second one is that we work at the same Super 8 Studio and with projects like this, it really gives an advantage to have several fast micro meetings during the day to share the vision and to be sure we are building the same visual world. Co-operating we are really working with each other, creating ideas, stuff, and content together to be sure that photos and graphic design are based on the consept we created.

Yep, and I can promise that there are even more of our shared visions to come! And for the all you WÖYH! fans I can promise that we are already building some new spectacular stuff.”

/Aki-Pekka Sinikoski

Check out WÖYH! website coded by Sensei Törönen himself.

The website is designed by Aki-Pekka Sinikoski and Jussi Karjalainen.

TALK TALK TALK

August 26, 2014

Are you in Helsinki tomorrow? If you want to hear about Aki-Pekka Sinikoski’s (and some of his colleagues’) thoughts about working with long documentary photo projects you are more than welcome to Helsinki Exhibition Centre on Friday afternoon (March 8, 2013). Then grab a good cup of coffee and let your feet guide you to the main stage at 1 pm. Event is arranged by Photo RAW and Musta Taide.

As usually Peki hasn’t worked only with long documentary projects but also with a hell of a lot of other interesting stuff. Sometimes in the super near future we will do the major update for KOREA‘s webpage. So beware to do some clickidi clicks with you macidi macs because new stuff we will hit here soon.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO 2012 NOMINATION

July 6, 2015

Hi folks!

King of Korea has some good news for you! We are happy to tell you that Herra Ylppö & Ihmiset: Mustat hevoset – the music video that Aki-Pekka Sinikoski made together with Herra Ylppö – is now Emma nominated for the Best Finnish Music Video 2012.

If you like the video, give your vote for it HERE

Cheers!

P.S. The video has now been watched more than 200 000 times in Youtube. –Not too bad in this “micronation”.

PHOTO WORKSHOP BY AKI-PEKKA SINIKOSKI

August 26, 2014

Aki-Pekka Sinikoski is doing an exclusive photo workshop together with Marko Hämäläinen. The workshop will take place in Helsinki during the night December, 8–9 2012. The workshop is organized by Photo Do. More info (in Finnish) can be found HERE.

MONSTER STORMS – STORM MONSTERS

April 15, 2013

Monsters. Odd little monsters. They are here. Not big ones but small ones. The really strange ones. I do not know where they came from but I know that they have moved into our house. I can see them and I have started to photograph them. I do not have a clue how this is going to end. But there is coming more. Weird things happening…

AUTUMN IN ÅLAND’S ARCHIPELAGO

April 15, 2013

Hi folks! I have just returned from the outer archipelago of Åland where I spent two weeks in the autumn storms. In case you don’t know, the Åland Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. The islands are situated at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia and form an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking region of Finland. But yes, of course you knew all this already.

I was happy to travel there and to the outer archipelago, together with my wife and my daughter. During day time I was photographing and in the evenings we read children books out loud in the candle light. We lived and worked next to the boat house in the picture above and I can tell you that the sea was all the time present. It was even in our dreams.

Working in these kind of pretty extreme conditions was some what an exotic but refreshing expirience. Two weeks on a lonely island without internet or mobile phone connections and without other people. We used rain water to wash ourself and solar energy to charge the camera batteries. There was a lot of limitations but even so we had everything we needed for a good life.

My photos from the outer archipelago are going to be published in the beginning of next year. I will tell you more soon… Until that, take care – of yourself and the planet.

With piiis and laaav, Peki

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TIME

November 16, 2012

Choreographer Maija Hirvanen is known for her thought-provoking and deliciously quirky works.

Hirvanen’s latest creation For those who have time examines habits formed by the rhythm of contemporary life. Imperfection, ardor, and beauty through sweat and emotions; these are the elements that the audience will encounter.

Aki-Pekka Sinikoski took the promotional photos for For those who have time. “I was basically asked to visualise the play in a photographic way. At that point there was only some parts of the choreography ready but we went through a lot of Maija’s ideas, thoughts, and the consept. After that I created the set design and lights for my photos.” explains Peki about the creative process behind these photos that run over Helsinki in November.

“I really enjoyed working with Maija – once again. She gave me a lot of artistic freedom and basically asked me to be part of their dance production crew at a early stage of the play. After I finished my part of the job, Maija continued the process with her main crew. You never know about the future but maybe there is even more to come with this artistic collaboration with her…”

More photos in the Portfolio.

For those who have time: Zodiak

FROM DUO TO DUO

November 16, 2012

“I’m coming to the harbour. You can stop me only by drowning 5000 people”

Musta höyhen (The Black Feather) is a cutting edge crime novel written in Finland. M/s Norlandia and its crew is ordered to do an easy two weeks gig in the Middle East by bringing 1800 refugees and to ship them to Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. But as captain Sten Bremer leaves behind the masacre in Syria his ship is loaded with a chaotic crowd of 5000 refugees. Extreme right wing rises like a storm over Europe. No-one wants these people and harbour after harbour is closing their ports in front of the ship. The clock is ticking. And the dark sea is waiting…

Peki Sinikoski and Jussi Karjalainen, the award winning duo (Bada Bim Bada Bum) from Superkasi Studio, did the visual consept, photos and the graphic design for the first part of this crime novel series written by two well respected Finnish veteran novelists, Mauno Saari and Juha Numminen. The first of the Numminen & Saari books are out now and published by WSOY. Check it out! (Some embraising critics below in Finnish for all you Scandinavian crime fiction fans out there.)

…And oh YES, the client loved Peki’s and Jussi’s work so there is more to come!

Musta Höyhen

”Rikosromaani, joka on yhteiskunnallinen, poliittinen, ajankohtainen ja kansainvälinen – kaikkea tätä vetävässä paketissa.”

Heini Sivonen, Ilta-Sanomat

”Musta höyhen on kansainvälinen trilleri, toiminnantäyteinen meriromaani ja yhteiskuntakriittinen puheenvuoro. 
   (…) Trillerinä ja meriromaanina Musta höyhen toimii erittäin hyvin.”

Pertti Avola, Helsingin Sanomat

”Kirja on ajankohtainen ja siksikin koukuttava. (…) Kirjailijat kuljettavat juonta johdonmukaisesti lukijaruuvia kiristäen. Tapahtumat maissa ja merellä vuorottelevat notkeasti. Ihmisen raadollisuus rehottaa. Kirjassa on paljon hyviä ja eläviä henkilötyyppejä.”

Heikki Haapavaara, Kauppalehti

PEKI x ENCONTROS DA IMAGEM

September 6, 2012

GREAT NEWS! Finnish Teens is going to be exhibited in … [rolls drum … drums keeps rolling… drum rolls way too long … come on Matt Sorum … Can you please stop now… ] … PORTUGAL.

To be more presice there will be a great selection of my photos (even some new prints) in the Encontros da Imagem. That is an international festival of photography and video curated by Rui Prata. Ooh mama, I can tell you that there is going to be a really interesting photographers in that show…

–Yep, I have to admit that I’m thrilled to be part of this one!

Yours, Aki-Pekka Sinikoski

Encontros da Imagem

THE RISE OF THE NEW FINNISH DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY

April 15, 2013

I’m happy to tell you that this evenings main TV News let us know that Aki-Pekka Sinikoski is in the frontline of the new rise of documentary photography in Finland. The news was published by YLE, Finnish National Broadcasting Company and can be found HERE.

For those who are not familiar with Finnish the news clip tells that there are now some really interesting documentary photographers coming from Finland like Aki-Pekka Sinikoski, Maija Tammi, and Juuso Westerlund.

FRONTLINE! Ooh la la, that sounds great… and just to give you some inside rumours from the palace of Korea, Peki is at the frontline even now… but this time his tool is a vacuum cleaner.