documentary photography

EXHIBITION IN SYDNEY

December 1, 2021

Good news! I will exhibit my photo series I Love Dogs in Sydney, Australia at the Head On Photo Festival! 🍾

I have been documenting people and their lives in Finland since 2008. This series started while my childhood friend Sam the Guardian Dog and I traveled around Finland. After some deep discussions about identity and change, we began photographing men whose identities included pup play.  And yes, of course, I took a portrait of my dear friend Sam as well. 

I think this photo series is a journey into the diversity of human beings—discussions about identity and change, about accepting oneself and people around you as they are. 

I Love Dogs, Head On Photo Festival, Sydney, Australia. 19 November to 19 December 2021

www.headon.com.au

MJ IN KUUKAUSILIITE

August 26, 2014

MJ by Aki-Pekka Sinikoski

Great news! Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest newspaper in Finland has published parts from my photo series “MJ” in Kuukausiliite (monthly published high quality magazine) as a photo portfolio.

Oh, and just to let you know that “MJ – World Tour (the exhibition)” will take place in 2015. Drop me an email, if you have a suitable event/exhibition/venue for “MJ”. My artist statement can be found below.

My artist statement can be found below.

Peace & Love, Aki

MJ – ARTIST STATEMENT

August 26, 2014

MJ by Aki-Pekka Sinikoski

MJ by Aki-Pekka Sinikoski

Who am I? The photograph suggests me an identity – permanent and almost everlasting. But I’m more than that.

I’m inhabited by several identities that switch around, change, and refuse to take a permanent form. I’m different at every moment. The light knows none of us. It can’t tell me who I am. The light hits the surface and exposes only what is visible.

As a photographer I am interested in the surface, identity and change. I have been shooting a series of documentary images of a Finnish young man who has dressed as Michael Jackson for the last four years. Every day. I believe that my series deals with finding one’s own identity and the courage to follow one’s own path. At the same time the images pose the question of how much can we know about a person based only on their outward appearance.

Michael-Jan is not Michael Jackson. The outward identity that seems familiar to everybody sets him apart from the crowd, but at the same time it hides the person inside.

The boundaries of reality are blurred in the grocery store when a Finnish housewife starts to blame Michael-Jan for things related to the life of the pop icon, deceased in 2009. The lady looks at Michael but does not see him. She sees only the reflecting surface which resembles someone else. All of a sudden Michael-Jan is invisible.

Who do people see when they look at me? Who do they see in my images?

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.

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.