Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre’s latest exhibition Photobook Award 2021 presents five finalists for the eponymous award given by the Finnish Association of Photographic Artists and The Finnish Museum of Photography. In the exhibition the audience can view, browse and read the photobooks, learn how they were made, and study the processes involved.

The winners of the Finnish Photobook Award 2021 are Elina Brotherus with her book Seabound. A Logbook and Sheung Yiu with Ground Truth. The prize is awarded annually to the author of an outstanding photobook and is worth 2000 euros. The other three finalists, awarded 500 euros each, were Laura Horelli withChanges in Direction. A Journal, Marko Hämäläinen with Hiljaisuus liikkuu tuulessa / Silence Moves with the Wind and Niko Luoma with For Each Minute – Sixty-five Seconds. “The 2021 prize was awarded to two artists at very different stages of their careers who also have quite different ways of approaching their artistic work,” says Henna Harri, director of the Finnish Association of Photographic Artists. The winners were selected by photographer and msdm founder paula roush from London. In addition to the photographs, important elements in the selection of the winner included the presentation of the story, the relationship between the text and the photographs, the haptic quality and the visual structure of the books. Roush describes the winning works as follows: “Two books about our relationship to the world – forest and sea – relying on playful, affective and experiential modes of knowing place.” For more information about the winners, please see photobookaward.fi.