Eija Mäkivuoti

About Eija Mäkivuoti

Photographic artist / Visual artist / Visual Communication Professional / Cultural Worker / Artist-Researcher.

I am a photographic artist/visual artist, an artist-researcher and a visual communication professional. I make border-crossing artistic work based in Helsinki, HaparandaTornio & Tórshavn.

Born and raised in Swedish Lapland, I am a bilingual Tornedalian with Finnish roots whose heart lives in the Faroe Islands. I work with lens-based long-term non-fiction and documentary narratives from a critical, ethical and socio-culturally sustainable approach. Along this I am also a multi-disciplinary cultural worker, with experience in working in different cultural institutions. I have also worked as a freelancer on different commissions. Hence I am many things professionally.

I hold a MA level degree from the Master's Programme in Nordic Visual Studies and Art Education (NoVA) from Aalto University. I also hold a BA level degree in visual communication and photography from the Lahti Design Institute (Lahti University of Applied Sciences) and are previously also trained as a visual artist (photography & media art focus).

I graduated in Aug 2018 from the NoVA Master's Programme at Aalto University in Helsinki, which has broaden my horizons and have affected in a major way on my approach and practices within the fields of art and culture.

I am a member of the Association of Photographic Artists' in Finland and CFF – the Centre for Photography in Sweden.

I am active in Tjaldur - the friendship society between Finland-Faroe Islands since 2011. I have been the chair of the board since 2015. I have been working in the Faroe Islands since 2008 with different art projects. One could say I have been adopted by the people I know there and a large part of my doing and being is dedicated to my second home country.

I was a member of the interdisciplinary artist group Mikropaliskunta. We made avantgarde explorations into contemporary cultures in a sustainable way utilising media art and art online long before social media applications. I think it still needs a mention even if we all have gone our different ways.

I have years of experience in working in different international, Nordic cultural and Finnish cultural institutions, dealing with a vast variation of tasks within communication, information, application systems, photography to IT-support and customer service as well as project coordination, production and management etc.

Previously I worked as a freelancer photographer for different employers within the fields of art and culture, e.g. for the Finnish metal music magazine Inferno and the metal blog The Metal Phenomenon, the performance company Oblivia and with other diverse assignments within the field of art and culture (events, seminars, festivals etc.). I collaborate with the blogger Nina Ratavaara who is blogging on her The Metal Phenomenon-blog. We have been working together for years, e.g. reviewing festivals for different media, like Allmetalfest.com and Helsinki Times.

I derive from Haparanda, Sweden from Finnish decent. Born and raised as a person in-between Finnish and Swedish culture I chose to move to Finland when I was 16 years old. My family still lives in Sweden so I could say I am both Finnish and Swedish (or as one would say, a second generation immigrant in Sweden but also an immigrant in Finland – but I settled in quite good and think of myself of having a hybrid identity – not neither or but both plus all kinds of other plural international cultural influences embedded in me).

Education

Master of Arts, Nordic Visual Studies and Art Education (NoVA) | Master's Degree Programme, Aalto University, 2016–2018

Photographer, BA / Medianomi, AMK | Degree Programme of Visual Communication, Design Institute, Lahti University of Applied Sciences, 2010

New Photography (20 cr.), Lahti University of Applied Sciences, 2006

Graphic Design & Publishing studies (19 cr.), University of Arts and Design, Helsinki, 2003

Visual Artist, Vocational School of Western Lapland, 2000

My Camera Gear

Canon R | Canon RF 24-70 F2.8 L IS USM | Canon RF 50 F1.8 STM

Canon 5D mark III | Canon EF 24-70 F2.8 L USM II | Canon EF 70-200 F4 L | Canon EF 50 F1.4

Mobile Photography by Samsung Galaxy s20FE (older with s7)

GoPro 9 with some gear

My Analogue Artistic Tools

Black Ink

Posca pens

Aquarelle paints (different brands e.g. Rosa)

Hahnemühle aquarelle papers

Da Vinci brushes

And so forth…

All material on this site is copyrighted. © Eija Mäkivuoti 1999–2023. Any use without permission is prohibited.

Read more of my artistic activity in my Curriculum Vitae.

Contact / Connect

If you want to contact me, please write email to eija.makivuoti [ ] gmail.com or connect with me through social media.