The capital city of Finland is a place offering the most diverse cultural experiences you could think of. Next to it’s surrounding nature and the plainly beautiful change of seasons, Helsinki is even providing a distinctive amount of places for street photography.
The city of Helsinki might not be the most crowded one, but there are still various places to take aesthetic and credible shots of the everyday street-life, the locals and their civilization. Hoping for the perfect shot, you will undergo extreme contrasts between beautiful Bohemian alleys and run-down suburbs. The following hints will tell you the best places to create and learn how to capture the social and cultural opposites of Helsinki.
Street Photography in Helsinki: The best places to hit the streets
The Central Railway Station
If you’re merely into capturing a diversity of cultures and people, the Central Railway Station of Helsinki might be the place to go. The surroundings are wide and open, yet they provide a touch of old traditions. The two statutes in front of the building are landmarksof Helsinki and give access to a long road of modifications in architecture of Finland´s largest train station. In conjunction with modern men walking around all days and nights, the setting gets a special twist between young and old, present and past.
Amos Anderson Art Museum
The Amos Anderson Art Museum contains great spots to shoot artsy street photography scenes. Especially the underground museum “Amos Rex” is a futuristic place that’s known for contemporary and socially critical art-exhibitions but also for interesting restaurant, cinema and office-locations. The skylights are constructed to perform different in every room. Sometimes they make the surroundings seem darker, sometimes brighter.The changing light situations depending on nature, daytime and sunlight stands, again, in contradistinction to the modern and progressive art and architecture the museum offers.
Suvilahti
The area of Suvilahti is very different to the rest of Helsinki. It was a district once known as a place for energy production and progress in constructing power plants. Today you can still see these industrial influences very clearly. To this day the place became a home for artists, writers and actors. The creative input developed the once desolate Suvilahti into a colourful area offering a great amount of cultural activities. Popular festivals – e.g. Helsinki Photo Festival mentioned down below -, creative agencies and skate parks turned the area into a great spot to prepare yourself for Street Photography Workshops in Helsinki.
Hietalahti Fleamarket
Catch people catching for bargains at Hietalahti Fleamarket. In a scenic location just next to the harbour of Helsinki, you will have the opportunity to photograph humans passing their time and spending their money. The Hieralahati Market Square with its romantic and colourful buildings is also a great opportunity to obtain and capture some insights of Helsinki´s night-life.
The best photo galleries for Street Photographers
Helsinki is a great place when it comes to any form of contemporary art, paintings and other creative productions. There are a lot of art galleries, which exhibitions are based on photograph and video-production. Even though none of them are especially declared as Street Photography galleries, you can be sure to find such art.
galleria heino
The galleria heino is a contemporary art gallery, which shows a great amount of art-pieces, merely created for young artists looking for new connections. Next to paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations and video productions, you might find some Street Photography here as well.
Since there are only two floors hosting one exhibition each, it might be useful to inform yourself about the current ones.
Previous exhibitions included artists like Hans von Schantz, a Nigerian artist focusing on the art of graffiti and urban surroundings.
(Galleria Heino, Uudenmaankatu 16-20, 00120 Helsinki, Finland)
galerie anhava
Another contemporary art gallery in Helsinki is the galerie anhava, which concentrates on conceptual finish and northern art. It was founded in 1991 and 1997 fused in with Galerie Artek. Today it’s one of the very few finish galleries interactinginternationally, e.g. on art fairs.When you are looking for Street Photography Courses Helsinki, you might come across artists like A K Dolven. By the end of 2018 she hosted a solo exhibition at galerie anhava focusing on photography and other conceptual art-forms to digest her experiences she made, living and working in big metropolises for over 30 years. In the exhibition she didn’t only focus on the overtaxing in a big city, but also on the positive sides, like helpfulness and balance between nature and humans.
(Galerie Anhava, Fredrikinkatu, 00120 Helsinki, Finland)
Some examples for great Street Photography from Helsinki:
Street Photography Workshops and courses in Helsinki
The creatives of Helsinki are deep into any kind of photography so the city will offer you a lot of Street Photographing courses and workshops. As well as large photographing schools, you will find professional photographers and teachers, such as non-profit workshops.
When you are looking for cheap Street Photographing Courses in Helsinki, you should keep an eye on the website Airbnb. Besides some dodgy offers, you will probably find some real treasures increasing your Street Photography ability here and there. When you’re heading to Finland soon, you should also check out the newest offers in photography workshops or courses.Professional photographers and journalists like Miikka Pirinen or Sami Kero are occasionally sharing their knowledge and experiences at their workshops.
Street Photography Workshop at Helsinki´s Photo Festival
One of the above mentioned non-profit workshops take place at the Helsinki Photo Festival. Since 2018 the festival tries to connect young artists, audiences and clients in an affordable and simply accessible way. Completely free of charge, you will have the possibility to meet a diversity of professional photographers and exchange experiences about street photography or other art-forms dealing with cameras. The free added-value workshops will sustainably teach and affect your knowledge about street photography.
No matter what time, the exhibitions are open air and always accessible for anyone. You will find detailed information about dates, artists, workshops and exhibitions on the website of the Helsinki Photo Festival.
(Kaasutehtaankatu 1, 00540 Helsinki, Finland)
The International Photo Center
Unfortunately, not every great photographing course or workshop in Helsinki is out of charge. One of the most popular and well-liked workshops for Street Photography takes place at the International Photo Center of Helsinki. Besides private lessons, basic photography or story telling workshops, there is a special one teaching you to take the most impressive shots in urban surroundings.While learning how to operate the camera in different lightnings, the students will increase their perception for details. The beautiful streets of Helsinki will make it easy for you to improve your lateral thinking and hopefully make you socialize with like-minded people and inspiring professionals.
The prices vary from €90 to €250, depending on the workshop-lengths of one day, three days or six weeks.
(Simonkatu, 8, Helsinki)
Street Photography related Workshops at The Finnish Museum of Photography
The Finnish Museum of Photography is not only an institution retrospecting the history of photography. The museum organizes many Photography Projects in collaborations with cultural and creative infrastructures throughout the year. Also, they frequently organize workshops in relation to their current exhibitions.
One example is the project Vuosaari 21. Realizing this elaborate project, the museum collaborated with the KOM-theatre and Klockriketeatern, trying to increase the living conditions in some poor suburbs of Helsinki. They held Photography Workshops and took great Street Photos, reflecting the lives of lower classes. Until all gathered results will be shown in 2021, the museum will be organizing many workshops and exhibitions around Vuosaari 21.Another current workshop at The Finnish Museum of Photography is the one called “Queer / Crip themed guided tour and discussion workshop”.
Even though you won’t get the chance to use a camera in this one, you will still get valuable knowledge about respect, tolerance and overcoming prejudices.(Kaapelitehdas, Tallberginkatu 1 G, 00180 Helsinki)