Tuija Lindström

In The Beginning There Was Everything

In the Beginning There Was Everything is Tuija Lindström's (born 1950) first comprehensive retrospective to be held in Finland. The themes of beauty and death, and life and humanity, are at the heart of the works presented at the exhibition. Lindström is one of Sweden's most well-known photographers, a professor in photography, and a highly influential figure in photography in Finland as well.

The retrospective takes the viewer on a journey through Tuija Lindström's career, from the 1980s black-and-white vintage prints to the 2010s large, colour-laden works. Lindström's works often deal with classic subjects in photography: the landscape, human portraits and the human body. The artist approaches these subjects in her powerful and direct, and yet tangibly sensitive, style.

The exhibition features works from 11 series, including Lindström's breakthrough seriesThe Girls at Bull's Pond (1991). In the photographs, pale, almost ethereal female bodies, afloat in the water, are juxtaposed with upright clothes irons. Her latest series, Nepenthes Laughing (2010), consists of highly precise close-ups of carnivorous plants.

Tuija Lindström was born in 1950 in the town of Kotka in Finland. She moved to Sweden in 1975, and graduated as a photographer from the Konstfack university college in Stockholm in 1984. As early as 1982, Lindström won the Moderna Museet's young promising photographer award. Lindström has held a number of solo and group exhibitions around the world. She was the first female professor at the University of Gothenburg School of Photography, from 1992 to 2002.

The exhibition will coincide with the publication of a photographic book entitled In the Beginning There Was Everything with photographs by Tuija Lindström and text by novelist Monika Fagerholm. Published by Art and Theory Publishing / Stockholm.

The exhibition is produced in collaboration with Hasselblad Foundation.

The article about Tuija Lindström by chief curator Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger.

Artist Talk (in Finnish and Swedish)  15.1. at 18-19. Museum entrance fee.

Guided tours: Public free-of-charge guided exhibition tours (in Finnish): Sundays 13; Morning guided exhibition tours Wednesdays 11.15–11.45, conversational exhibition guide: Sundays 14–15. Museum entry fee.

To book guided tours or workshops: workshop@fmp.fi , tel. +358 9 6866 3621

Further information on workshops, guided tours and public program: Head of education and public programmes Erja Salo, +358 44 2706216, erja.salo@fmp.fi

Further information on the exhibitions: 
Chief curator Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger 050 518 7619. anna-kaisa.rastenberger@fmp.fi

Curator Tiina Rauhala, +358 504327562, tiina.rauhala@fmp.fi

Exhibition hours Tue–Sun, 11–18 Wed, 11–20.

The Finnish Museum of Photography, Cable Factory, Tallberginkatu 1 G, 00180 Helsinki

tel. +358 9 6866 3621 / fmp@fmp.fi /