Nelli Palomäki: Holds

Photographic artist Nelli Palomäki is known both in Finland and internationally for her magically timeless and moving portraits. At the core of her work are the relationships we have to those similar to us, themes of family or family-like community, and the human need to build and offer physical, psychological and spiritual shelter. In recent years, Palomäki has gone from portraying children and young people to photographing adults, all along preserving the quiet and sensitive interaction between photographer and her subject. The works are created in a gradually deepening relationship with a person who is often a stranger to the artist. The photographs challenge the viewer to consider how much a portrait can ultimately reveal about the sitter, and to what extent the image is directed by the artist and at the same time perhaps a portrait of the photographer themselves.

Palomäki is interested in the creation process of the analogue photograph and its relationship to the annual cycle and darkness. She currently uses a slow, large-format film camera and develops the images as silver gelatin prints using traditional techniques. Darkroom work requires patience, as there are several stages that must be carried out carefully. The artist describes herself as someone who struggles between chaos and control, with an obsessive relationship to the photograph.

Three bodies of work from Palomäki’s production are on display at Turku Art Museum. Shared (2016–2024) focuses on siblinghood; a relationship characterized by both similarity and difference. In the photographs, the siblings cling to and hold each other. They share an identity shaped by togetherness and separation. Speed of Dark (2020–2024) was born from a life condensed around home, family, and the darkroom under the pressure of global circumstances. The series depicts children growing up and the annual cycle of the garden, while delving into the innermost essence of photography: the presence and absence of light and the photograph’s ability to preserve and shape our memories.

The final series, The Ladder (2024–), makes its debut at Turku Art Museum. It was photographed at the Valamo Monastery in Heinävesi and continues to use photographic means to address the themes of safety and shelter. The works are rooted in the everyday life of the modern-day monastery and its brotherhood, whose age structure has become younger in recent years. The photographs draw on monastic tradition, icons, as well as stories and texts that gradually unfold during the artist’s visits to the monastery. The Ladder refers not only to the work of the same name by Saint John Climacus from the year 600, which describes the thirty steps to spiritual development, but also more generally to the human need to develop and move towards a chosen goal.

Nelli Palomäki (b. 1981) lives and works in Karkkila. Palomäki is a graduate of the Turku Arts Academy’s photography programme and holds a master’s degree in photography from Aalto University. Her work has been exhibited in several exhibitions both in Finland and abroad. Palomäki’s latest publication, Shared (2024), won the Photobook Award this spring. The publication is available in the museum shop, and Antti Nylén’s essay On Siblinghood, which was written for the book, can be read on the exhibition’s webpage.

The exhibition is produced by Turku Art Museum and created in collaboration with the Parisian gallery Les filles du calvaire. The exhibition has been supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The artist’s work has been supported by the Kone Foundation and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Thank you: New Valamo Monastery and Valamon Ystävät ry.