Artist Talks: Joel Karppanen and Elina Bry
Thursday 26th November, 6pm
Join us for talks with Finnish artist Joel Karppanen and Glasgow-based artist Elina Bry.
Joel is currently undertaking a residency at Street Level Photoworks this November 2026 and will be speaking about his practice and his current research interests, which focus on AI developments in the Central Belt of Scotland. Elina will tell us about her one-month residency at Kulttuurikauppila Art Centre in Northern Finland, and the work that came out of it, which is now on show at Oulu Museum as part of their ‘Adaptation’ project.
Joel Karppanen is a Finnish photographer and filmmaker whose practice focuses on labour and class relations, examining how reality is mediated through economic structures, collective memory, and inherited narratives. Through long-term, socially engaged, post-documentary methods, he explores urban and rural environments as socially constructed spaces, combining analogue and digital photography, archival materials, installation, and moving image to reveal the political, material, and emotional forces that shape contemporary life. Originally from Northern Finland and now based in Helsinki, Karppanen has exhibited internationally at institutions and festivals including the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, PHotoEspaña, KunstHausWien, Lahti Museum of Visual Arts Malva, and Mänttä Art Festival.
Elina Bry is French/Finnish, Glasgow based multidisciplinary artist and award-winning filmmaker. Bry's work explores the relationship between humans and nature in a time of climate anxiety and climate change. During the residency she chose to 'slow travel', journeying to Northern Finland by land and sea. The resulting work, shown in the exhibition Adaptation, addresses the topic through moving image, sound and performance. Bry also aims to bring the voices and feelings of local people about nature to a wider audience. As she is half-Finnish, she has a strong connection to Finnish nature, which she has also explored in her previous work, Is The Earth Chronically Ill? (2023–2024).
These residencies are part of the long-standing collaboration between Photo North in Oulu, Finland, and Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow, Scotland, which has fostered artistic exchange and organisational collaboration since 2019.
Banner Image: © Elina Bry
Inset Image: Joel Karppanen © photographed by Akseli Valmunen
