The artists nominated by

Copenhagen Photo Festival
in
2024

Barbara Marstrand (b. 1994) has been selected for her project Still Life of Teenagers which playfully portrays the lives of Danish youth. Approaching photography with a curiosity about different groups of people, Marstrand offers a unique insight into different life experiences, combining her artistic practice and keen eye with sociological methods.

Emma Sarpaniemi (b.1993), based in Helsinki, has been selected for her project Two Ways to Carry a Cauliflower because of her refreshingly unique, satiric and at the same time intimate way of exploring identity. Through both performative and satirical self portraits, Sarpaniemi challenges traditional femininity and gender roles.

Frederik Danielsen (b. 1995) has been selected for his work revolving around the myths of the Danish island Als, where the artist himself grew up. Danielsen evokes the viewer's curiosity for these local places and their stories by applying a photographic approach that combines documentary photography and conceptual art, using both his own photographs as well as found material from local archives.

Jenni Toivonen (b. 1993) based in Helsinki, has been selected for her project Are We There - a performative journey to the old village Penedo where her grandparents were set to build an utopian community in the tropics. As it unfolds, the project becomes an investigation into migration, memory and history.

Mathias Eis (b. 1995) has been selected for his long-term project Are we nearly there yet?, which explores life at the 148 rest stops along the Danish highway. Although most Danish people have visited at least one of these stops, few attach any value to them, so Eis transforms these otherwise bland locations into places worth seeing.

Barbara Marstrand (b. 1994) has been selected for her project Still Life of Teenagers which playfully portrays the lives of Danish youth. Approaching photography with a curiosity about different groups of people, Marstrand offers a unique insight into different life experiences, combining her artistic practice and keen eye with sociological methods.

Emma Sarpaniemi (b.1993), based in Helsinki, has been selected for her project Two Ways to Carry a Cauliflower because of her refreshingly unique, satiric and at the same time intimate way of exploring identity. Through both performative and satirical self portraits, Sarpaniemi challenges traditional femininity and gender roles.

Frederik Danielsen (b. 1995) has been selected for his work revolving around the myths of the Danish island Als, where the artist himself grew up. Danielsen evokes the viewer's curiosity for these local places and their stories by applying a photographic approach that combines documentary photography and conceptual art, using both his own photographs as well as found material from local archives.

Jenni Toivonen (b. 1993) based in Helsinki, has been selected for her project Are We There - a performative journey to the old village Penedo where her grandparents were set to build an utopian community in the tropics. As it unfolds, the project becomes an investigation into migration, memory and history.

Mathias Eis (b. 1995) has been selected for his long-term project Are we nearly there yet?, which explores life at the 148 rest stops along the Danish highway. Although most Danish people have visited at least one of these stops, few attach any value to them, so Eis transforms these otherwise bland locations into places worth seeing.

Projects nominations
Mathias Eis
Mathias Eis (b. 1995) is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, who specializes in long-term real-life projects that explore people’s ways of living through portraiture, reportage and landscape photography. He graduated with an BA in Photojournalism from the Danish School of Media and Journalism in 2023. He also attended the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, where he studied Fine Art Photography from 2018-2019. He is particularly interested in communities and subcultures that provide a unique insight into a life that few have access to. He works as a freelancer focusing on longer projects combined with commissioned assignments for various international and national media.
Artist
Frederik Danielsen
Frederik Danielsen (b.1995) is a Danish documentary photographer. Studying photojournalism at the Danish School of Media and Journalism, Danielsen worked as an intern at Dagbladet Information and studied abroad at Valand Academy of Fine Arts in Gothenburg. In 2018, his first book – Drenge – was published by Disko Bay.‍
Artist
Jenni Toivonen
Jenni Toivonen (b.1993) is a Finnish visual artist and interdisciplinary practitioner, primarily working in the extended field of fine art photography. Her artistic work revolves around the interconnectedness of life, ecology, impermanence and the passage of time, which she often explores through the materiality of the human body and the earth. She sees the body as a vessel for a primal creative force and deeper existential understanding. Her practice is motivated by the entanglements of personal and environmental storylines. Besides moving between various media such as photographs, film, text, sound, performance and installation, Toivonen is interested in incorporating diverse approaches to broaden her take on artistic narratives. Through performative and ritualistic methods the artist seeks reciprocity and expanding the ways of knowing and coexisting with her surroundings.Toivonen's works have been exhibited in several solo exhibitions in Finland and in curated group exhibitions in countries such as France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Iceland. She holds an MA in Photography from Aalto University and has studied audiovisual communication in UNQ Buenos Aires.
Artist
Emma Sarpaniemi
Emma Sarpaniemi is an artist based in Helsinki, Finland. Sarpaniemi graduated with BA inPhotography from The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK) in 2019. In her practice,Sarpaniemi explores the concept of femininity through humorous and performative self-portraits. Self-portraiture is a playground for Sarpaniemi where her aim is to shake up conventional notions of femininity.Sarpaniemi’s work has been exhibited in Finland and internationally including LesRencontres d’Arles festival, European Month of Photography Luxembourg festival, The FinnishMuseum of Photography, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, amongothers. Her work is in the public collections of The Finnish Museum of Photography, The FinnishState Art Deposit Collection, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, Museum Folkwang, ,Wihuri Foundation Collection, Heino Art Foundation, Miettinen Collection, and private collectionsin Finland, The Netherlands and Switzerland.
Artist
Barbara Marstrand
Barbara Marstrand (b. 1994) is a self-taught photographer based in Copenhagen with a background in sociology. She explores social life through aesthetics to create rich visual narratives that make us reflect upon our ways of being in the world today. Focusing on the interaction between people and materiality, she examines the boundaries of what is considered worthy of seeing, portraying, and relating to. Marstrand's work is characterized by thorough research, drawing inspiration from sociology, philosophy and history of art, as well as visual artworks and popular culture. She brings a reflexive approach to photography, combining realism and fiction within a conceptual tradition of still life.In 2023 she published her first photo book ‘Still Life of Teenagers’ with Danish publisher Disko Bay. The book explores the lives of Danish youth through photographs of their bedrooms.