Helsinki street photography

Film

Helsinki is the capital city of Finland and renowned for being a great place to live. Helsinki has a great atmosphere, the streets are filled with people and performers and there is a lot to see. In early August, me and my SO planned a tourist trip to this gem of Finland. During our trip, I did some street photography and had so much fun.

Stories of strangers

Our small tour included a visit to Helsinki City Museum and the exhibition “Museum of Broken Relationships“. The exhibition is very popular and I have to say, I recommend it from the bottom of my heart. It lasts until 11th of September, so you still have couple of weeks to go and experience it. I won’t say any more of it, other than after visiting it, I felt refreshed like after a theater show. I had immersed myself in the stories of the exhibition and maybe for a moment I forgot where (and who) I was. After walking out, the world seemed to be a bit more brighter somehow.

I had two rolls of film (Velvia, I’ll shoot it as long as I have rolls left! :D) with me and I decided to do some street photography. I like taking pictures of people, but asking for permission is a bit hard. Shooting with a soft glass (Helios 44-2) and on film, I thought most of the people will stay kinda unrecognizable anyway so I let myself loose.

My trip to Helsinki was actually a couple of weeks earlier than my last post about the lake but I get my color film developed in batches and these pictures I scanned later.

Here’s what I managed to capture:

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I like mixing square format with uncropped format. The Helios lens has very soft edges, so cropping suits it well.

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The beggar.

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A performing artist. I tipped and thanked him for the pictures. He had good showmanship, nice act and hilarious quips!

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I shot also some generic pictures of food, drinks and atmosphere. I do a lot of social media updates at work and I find it fun to use film photos to illustrate them.

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It’s a PIZZA! Used this one on my social media work already! 🙂 I like having a reason to shoot, it gives me focus and I shoot different things than I would normally. This blog has made me shoot differently and so has my work.

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Candle at an italian restaurant.

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This is from the yard of Helsinki City Museum. It feels like being in another country. Finland doesn’t look like this! Also see the scary dark haired child in the back.

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This girl was trying to take on a Pokemon Gym. She was tapping her phone so fast I knew she was battling!

street photography
Maybe a father and a son. They came out for a break and cigarette. Finland’s cigarette laws and taxes are so high nowadays that it’s (almost) rare to see someone smoke.

I visit Helsinki quite often for business, but it’s a totally different city when you are not in a rush. Photography is an excellent way to remove hurry from the equation. When carrying a camera, you become more present in the moment. You have to observe and if you are doing something else, you lose focus.