Photojournalism students from Tampere University, Karoliina Redsven and Christian Pirskanen, will present their work at the Rotterdam Photo Festival in May 2025 as part of Backlight Photo Festival’s international student cooperation initiative. The exhibition is a result of collaboration between Backlight, Rotterdam Photo and Finnish and Dutch photography students, who will work across both countries. In Rotterdam, the students will showcase their work to an international audience and engage with young photographers from across Europe.
Christian Pirskanen’s Breaking Point focuses on individuals recovering from drug addiction. Built on interviews, the portraits reflect the emotional and mental states experienced during addiction and the turning points that led to recovery.
Karoliina Redsven’s project Who gets to be seen? explores visibility and community within the music industry. Through group portraits, the work highlights musicians both as individuals and as part of a collective. The project questions how visibility is distributed and who is given the stage.
The exhibition will take place in one of the festival’s outdoor containers and forms part of an ongoing collaboration with Willem de Kooning Academy. In autumn 2025, Dutch students will present their work at Photographic Centre Nykyaika in Tampere, with further collaboration planned for Backlight 2026.
The project is supported by the C.V. Åkerlund Foundation and the Patricia Seppälä Foundation.
Photo: Karoliina Redsven: Who gets to be seen?