Documentary and portrait photographer

I was drawn to stories long before I understood photography as a way of telling them. I began making pictures as a child—first with a 35 mm camera, then with cine and video cameras—and gradually realized the images I was looking for did ’t need to be invented. They were already in the world.

My interest in documentary photography grew from two early sources: the books at home that revealed distant parts of the world, and photographs from the Vietnam War and the conflicts that followed. I understood little of their context at the time, but I sensed the weight an image could carry — the way it could make a remote life feel immediate. Decades later, I studied photojournalism at the New York Institute of Photography.

One question runs through all my work: what reveals itself when nothing is being performed?

In the studio, I often construct the light, but the presence I am looking for is ’t. I use studio light to bring forward something that is already there, not to impose a character on the person. On location, I work with available light, adding to it only when the image requires it.

Based near Helsinki, I work in Finland and internationally, in the studio and on location. The subject changes. The aim does not: an honest picture.

Selected publications and recognition

The Photographic Museum of Humanity's Familiar Stranger. Order the book here.

Other features: Vogue Italy, LFI Master Shot Gallery, Photo Vogue, LHSA, Volta ao Mundo (Portugal).

You can read my experiences with the APO-Summicron-M 50 mm ASPH “LHSA” edition here.

Commissions

Available for editorial and environmental portraits, corporate portraits, and documentary commissions in Finland and abroad.

juha@juhawikstrom.com · Instagram: @juhawikstrom