What makes Helsinki-based photographer Aki-Pekka Sinikoski, aka Peki, keep coming back to Ii and the KulttuuriKauppila residence?
“It’s really magical in Ii, time is different here. I get space to think and distance myself from everyday life, but above all the magic is in the light,” he says, “It’s light in summer and dark in winter, almost 24 hours a day, so it doesn’t matter what time of day I work. Time doesn’t follow the rhythm that I usually have and it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Small and quiet stories are important to me, they can deepen your relationship with place and people. I think I see Ii differently from how the locals see it. There are many stories of the past that run through the present – different layers of time are present as if at the same time,” he describes, and then reveals surprisingly, “For me, Ii is like New Orleans in the north!”
Aki-Pekka Sinikoski will be artist-in-residence at KulttuuriKauppila in January 2023 and is working on his next book of photographs. Sinikoski’s photographs have been published worldwide, including in The New Yorker, Le Monde, The Guardian and Vogue. His work has been widely exhibited in Finland and internationally, on four continents. In 2021, Aki and his daughter Astrid Sinikoski were nominated for the prestigious Meitar Awards.
Sinikoski’s book New Ghosts will be published by S&S in spring 2024.
www.sinikoski.com