MARJA PIRILÄ

Photographer Marja Pirilä (b.1957) graduated in 1986, both as a photographer from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (now Aalto University) and as a biologist with an MSc in ecological zoology from the University of Helsinki. Pirilä’s extensive body of work encompasses series made using the camera obscura technique. Her work and contributions to the development of this rare technology and its creative applications has won her awards including the Alfred Kordelin Prize in 2020 and the Finnish State Prize for Photographic Art in 2000. Since 1987, Pirilä’s works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Finland, Europe and Asia, as well as North and South America. In 2024, she was invited by the Finnish Art Society to hold a retrospective exhibition, Because of Light, at Kunsthalle Helsinki, and the same year she was invited to take part in the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum’s exhibition Remembrance beyond images.

Marja Pirilä has published seven photographic books, two of which are retrospective photography books: Because of Light (2024) and Carried by Light (2014). Her works feature in several collections, such as those of The Finnish Museum of Photography, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, HUS Art Collection, Finnish State Art Commission, Serlachius Art Museum (Mänttä), Saastamoinen Foundation (Espoo) and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation collection (Rovaniemi).