Markus Jokela

“I have always been interested in photographing normal, everyday life. For me the greatest challenge is to make an interesting image of something very ordinary, almost invisible,” reflects Finnish photographer Markus Jokela. His images are the result of coincidences and unplanned encounters with people and places. Jokela almost never stages his photographs. Sometimes he asks people to stop, to freeze, but usually he just snaps one or two frames and continues walking. Moments and Landscapes of Minor Importance were shot in Helsinki between 2019 and 2023. Most of them were captured within a few kilometers from where he lives. Jokela has won three World Press Photo awards, but despite his proximity to global moments, his personal projects often document everyday human life.

MARKUS JOKELA (*1952, Helsinki) is a photographer who has traveled the world to report on global news. He earned his MA in social sciences at University of Tampere, Finland, and from 1981–93 worked as a journalist for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, before becoming a photo editor at the same newspaper, and eventually a photographer in 2001.