The artists nominated by
This year’s Fotogalleriet selection of artists represent a broad artistic and geographical landscape. Rooted in photography as the main medium, each artist expands our perception of photography as an art form. While being based in the Nordics, their field of work reaches beyond physical and metaphysical borders. Time and obscurity are central in each of their works – questioning our predisposed set of beliefs. While specifically exploring varied topics of diaspora, migration, shifting identities and heritage they collectively touch upon temporality, memories, loss, and change.
Through explorative materializations of their artform from Joanna Chia-yu Lin's soft photographic sculptures; to Jošt Dolinšek's site specific photographies printed with fine sand on black surfaces; to aluminum explosives of clandestine devices of the dark room by Nazanin Raissi; and Louise Sinaga Helmfrid's astute portrayals, they invoke undercurrent positionalities within photographic art and visual culture production.
For the second year, Fotogalleriet has engaged curators, writers, researchers from the whole Nordic region as jury constituted by Curator at Röda Sten Konsthall Amila Puzić; Liisa-Ravna Rinborg, writer, researcher and curator currently situated at The Munch Museum; Samuel Girma, a curator, activist and cultural producer from Malmø; Nkule Mbaso, Director of Fotogalleriet and Miki Gebrelul, Curator and Head of Exhibitions at Fotogalleriet.
Nazanin Raissi (b. 1981, Tehran) is a Swedish-Iranian artist and clinical psychologist based in Sweden. Centred on the medium of photography, her work ranges from site-specific installations to video animation and sculpture. Her research-based artistic practice explores themes of memory, loss, and displacement.
Louise Sinaga Helmfrid is a Swedish photographer and photo artist with Indonesian background, known for her intimate and colorful portraits that often integrate nature. Her work explores themes such as identity and cultural heritage. She has exhibited her work in places such as Fotografiska, Kulturhuset in Stockholm and Liljevalchs.
In 2024, Louise was appointed as the resident of the year by the Sune Jonsson Center for Documentary Photography at Västerbotten Museum. During her two-month residency at the Sune Jonsson Center for Documentary Photography (SJCD) at Västerbotten Museum in the fall of 2024, Louise Sinaga Helmfrid focused on documenting the Asian minority in northern Sweden. She strived to portray these individuals beyond the stereotypes often found in media and popular culture, with a particular focus on examining the relationship between minorities and the national romantic aesthetic that has long characterized the image of northern Sweden.
One of her most notable exhibitions, "Plastic Can Never Wither", was shown at the Center for Photography in Stockholm in 2024 and Liljevalchs spring salon in 2025. This portrait series examines the relationship between the Southeast and East Asian diaspora and Sweden. The project was inspired by Editha Domingo, the first Asian person Louise saw on Swedish television as a child, which led her to explore how this diaspora is represented in Sweden. With a solid track record and a number of previous projects that have addressed these complex topics in an engaging and insightful way, Louise continues to explore how images and narratives shape our perceptions of nation, culture and identity.
Jošt Dolinšek (1997, Ljubljana, SI) is a lens-based visual artist. His practice is predominantly stemming from photographic medium and is expanded into moving imagery, installation and sculpture.
Dolinšek mostly works on long-term projects, exploring the existential experience of environment and time and our relationship towards both. His work is centred upon the questions on uncertainty — of perspective, duration and change. Form and materiality pose as one of the crucial elements of his works, and are often strongly related to the process and the inquiry behind them.
In 2023, he graduated from a MFA Photography programme at HDK-Valand in Gothenburg (SE) and in 2020, he earned a BA in Psychology at the University of Ljubljana (SI). Among others, he has exhibited his works in Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (DE), Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana (SI) and Röda Sten Konsthall in Gothenburg (SE). He lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden.
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