Heidi Piiroinen’s “Left Coast” is a documentation of daily life spiced up with humor

25.1.2017

The exhibition, "Left Coast", by photo journalist Heidi Piiroinen has opened at the Bang Bang Gallery. She has documented daily life openly and realistically, but spiced up with what can sometimes be black humor. The Gallery is located on Aalto EE’s premises in the main building of the Aalto University School of Business. 

Heidi Piiroinen (born 1978) is a photo journalist based in Helsinki. She works internationally as a staff photographer for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper. When she moved to Berkeley in 2015, to study film making for a year, she took her family with her. While learning to make documentaries, she also learned about herself and her family. The exhibition documents their lives in Berkeley. The best camera is the one you have with you, which is why many of the images have been shot with a cell phone.

“When I look at these images, I feel melancholy and pain. I should be able to laugh at that burned pizza, but I can’t. I’m looking at a time I don’t even remember, or don’t want to remember. When I look at these images, I see that there is love and laughter in my life. It has been there all the time. Why didn’t I see it then?” says Heidi Piiroinen.

She has been capturing the everyday lives of ordinary people since she graduated from the Arts Academy of Turku University of Applied Sciences in 2002. She has received Finland Press Photos of the Year awards several times. She has just finished her first documentary film, Black Hole Mama, which is a sympathetic and intimate portrait of the residents of a house earmarked for demolition in Jakomäki, Helsinki. It was premiered at DocPoint, the Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, in January 15th 2017.

The exhibition will be open by appointment from 20 January to 28 April 2017 (contact heli@bangbang.fi). Welcome to the open house evening from 5 pm to 7 pm on 16 February 2017. 

More information

http://art.aaltoee.com

Heli Mäenpää, Creative Director, Gallerist, Lecturer
Bang Bang Gallery
Tel. +358 50 5110 765, heli@bangbang.fi

Bang Bang Gallery

Bang Bang Gallery celebrates young creative talent in collaboration with Aalto University Executive Education (Aalto EE). By welcoming fresh names of Finnish photography and introducing them to Aalto EE’s clientele gallery aims to offer a possibility for interesting encounters. Every three months a new artist and his latest series will be exhibited at Bang Bang Gallery with a possibility of purchase. Gallery is curated by Heli Mäenpää, a lecturer at Aalto University, creative director and a passionate supporter of young artists.

Aalto University Executive Education Ltd 

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