all photos © Luca Berti.

The exhibition is an artistic and ethnographic photo-documentary about the Finnish countryside and its inhabitants.

What is the 21st century Finnish countryside? The Italian photographer Luca Berti (1978) traveled from Ostrobothnia to Lapland and Karelia to the south coast, depicting black-and-white images on his film camera. He documents rural landscapes and people’s everyday life, focusing in particular on the features that have sustained the pressure of urbanization.

The photographs of the exhibition are taken in the classical photography style of the early 20th century, based on aesthetic realism and historical consciousness. Luca’s photographs follow the traditional style of documentary photographers like August Sander, Knud Knudsen and Axel Lindal, and inspired by their old techniques, all his black and white photographs are taken with a large-format film camera.

The exhibition includes 37 photos from Finland and 10 from Estonia. It is on display at the National Museum in Helsinki from 8 June to 2 September 2018. Free entry.