"Ferenc, Budapest, 2005" copyright Arja Katariina Hyytiainen/Agence Vu

Copyright Arja Katariina Hyytiainen/Agence Vu

Copyright Arja Katariina Hyytiainen/Agence Vu

It was with great personal delight that I watched my friend Arja Hyytiainen step up on stage last night in Paris to accept the top prize for photography from Kodak. Arja is an intense, energetic photographer with a lust for life and humanity and experience that comes through in her gritty, grainy, uniquely personal work. She uses the camera, I think, as a form of journal for memories and experiences, and also as a way to get close to strangers and to help her come to grips with new and strange environments, behaviors, and foreign cultures. Looking through her photographs is sometimes like the guilty pleasure of reading someone's personal diary. The intimacy and distance she captures become experiences we can instantly share. I think of her as a very important photographer for the 21st century, and someone to watch.

The 31st annual Prix Kodak de la Critique Photographique was selected by a jury of European photography critics whose formal statement said (in my rough translation from the French), "For the jury, the work of Arja Katariina Hyytiainen shows a very original and intent gaze - sometimes disturbing - on fragments of life. Her work is based on a personal artistic eye and use of very interesting light to share her personal experiences."

Hyytiainen's body of work, "Europe - Scenario", invites us to share her ongoing voyage throughout Europe, researching humanity in a context of marginality.

About this series, she says, "Marginality, this zone of blur which can take any form - according to what people seek, the way in which they can react, and the meetings and events which it causes - are discussion threads in my work. My starting point in photography is to preserve a trace of things. Each experience leaves a mark, and a photograph can become a proof, fictitious or not."

Born in 1974 in the town of Turku, Finland, Arja Katariina Hyytiainen is a graduate of photography of l'Académie des Beaux-Arts and has lived in France since 2005. She is represented by Agency VU' in Paris. In just a few short productive years, she has gained acclaim, respect and admiration through Europe, in particular in countries of Eastern Europe where she lived and had solo exhibitions (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Moldavie, Slovenia). Her work has been shown in group shows in Berlin, Gothenburg, Cork and San Sebastian. She had her first three expositions in France just last year in Paris with Galerie VU', at an excellent group exposition in Enghien-les-Bains (Les Indépendances), and in Marseille (Atelier de Visu).

Lens Culture is pleased to present a selection of her work in the very near future, along with an interview with the photographer. In the meantime, you can see more of her work at her web site.

Cheers!