The 12th Regional Photography Exhibition of Central Finland manifests - once again, I would like to venture - the remarkable scope and variety of photographic practices. First I want to point out and mark the broad, embracing and inclusive character of the photography present in this exhibition; so different and varied projects that take such distinct paths in exploring the photographic medium. Second, I can not either fail the opportunity to note, experience and realize the remarkable democratic qualities of the photographic medium, of the rare encounter, still alive today, between so many different kinds of practitioners: professional, semi-professional, and amateur; all walks of life invited to share the fruit of plenty in working with photographs, as so vividly articulated in this exhibition.

Furthermore, I want to emphasize the range of formal and aesthetic concerns available among the selected photographic works. Here we range from straight photography of the single image or the reportage series in a journalistic or documentary mode to several projects involving double-exposure, time-lapse exposures, or major and sophisticated postproduction methods, enabling images of sensuousness, inventiveness, fracture, dissonance and harmony. There is also an inviting axis of variety that extends from the straightforward snapshot, the photographic observation of things as they pass by or just happen in front of the camera, to series of staged or performed image works, where the photographer takes action both in front and behind the camera. There is even a fascinating, rich and tactile engagement with photographic techniques that involve other materials than the photographic paper, turning the photographic print into a physical and sensual object of fine sensation, including also the revival of original methods such as the cyanotype from the birth years of photography.

Finally, let us also be clear of how this exhibition shows the photograph’s ability to address a major variety of topical concerns. In this exhibition you encounter works engaged with environmental destruction, the care for cultural heritage, protection of natural habitats, exploration of individual identity and the promotion of distinct cultural practices. The medium of photography has that extraordinary ability to involve itself into such a variety of issues and modes of expression. I invite you to enjoy and experience the 12th regional exhibition of central Finland.

Jan-Erik Lundström

The 12th Regional Photography Exhibition of Central Finland, Ratamo - Photographic center, Jyvaskyla, 2016