Nelli Palomäki

Nelli Palomäki is a photographer known for her haunting black-and-white portraits. Her eerie, tenebrous photographs of young children dressed in Victorian clothing betray a gothic sensibility. Her work harkens back to a time when getting one's portrait taken was a solemn, momentous occasion. Palomäki's subjects often gaze into the camera, still and serious. The powerful interpersonal relationship between photographer and sitter is paramount for Palomäki. "The intensity of the moment shared with the subject controls the portrait as we stand there with our grave faces, breathing the same heavy air, acutely aware of each other's details," she says. Palomäki's work has been exhibited in solo shows at Kulturhuset in Stockholm (2011) and Finland's Turku Art Museum (2008). She is included in ReGeneration2: Tomorrow's Photographers Today, a traveling exhibition and book project organized by Aperture Foundation in 2010. In 2010, she was also awarded the Victor Fellowship from the Hasselblad Foundation.