The theme of the festival in 2016 was ‘Homeland’. Under that theme, the festival examined how feelings of belonging to a place and a community but also prejudices and various meanings of exclusion are constructed via photographs. The festival’s photographers addressed the theme from numerous perspectives: from border controls to people’s deportation and from those who have found a new community to people isolating themselves from the rest of society. The subjects of the works included paperless individuals, refugees, and people living in solitude in the forest.

Photographers

Miia Autio, Laura Böök, Nicoló Degiorgis, Maria Gruzdeva, Mattia Insolera, Tuomo Manninen, Kerttu Matinpuro, Sanni Seppo, Massimo Sestini, Danila Tkachenko, Katja Tähjä and Oksana Yushko.

Exhibitions

The Finnish Museum of Photography: Homeland
Stoa gallery: Hidden islam
Galleria Kontupiste: Balaklava
Helsinki city streets: One year after the parliamentary elections: what is going on, Finland?

Festival programme

- Artist talks. Festival photographers tell about their work.
- Power Shots – Can Photography Make a Change? Seminar with festival photographers
- Can art influence society? discussion with Laura Böök, Roxana Crisólogo, Heidi Hänninen, Outi Korhonen, Hende Nieminen and Timo Wright
-  Film screenings at Stoa: Speed Sisters, Kuuntele, On Mothers and Daughters and Life is waiting
- #FreeWesternSahara. Western Sahara independence day celebration - Tissit ja linssit club. Discussion on International Women’s Day