Postcards from the REAL Helsinki

Pekka Niittyvirta got tired of the same monuments and churches - free cards available from shops and cafés

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By Santtu Parkkonen
     
      Photographer Pekka Niittyvirta got thoroughly fed up with a situation that seemed to repeat itself every time he travelled: he could never find any postcards that actually said anything real about the destination. It was just Eiffel Towers, churches, and other tourist sightseeing evergreens.
      When Niittyvirta got home to Helsinki, he saw to his dismay that the situation was no different here.
      "Helsinki presents itself in postcards as the Sibelius Monument, the Lutheran Cathedral, and other stock clichés, and that is just about it."
     
So last Midsummer he set about rectifying the problem and filming Helsinki the way the local residents see it every day of the week.
      This spring, he made some of the images into postcards.
      Niittyvirta's postcards show "Helsinki by Sleet", they show dirty windows, they present streets in a permanent state of being dug up for repair, and they show over-indulged men and other party animals crashed out on park benches, on the grass, or in doorways.
      "It is quite disturbing that people passing out after getting drunk are regarded as quite normal in Helsinki, and nobody pays any attention any longer to the slumped bundles", ponders Niittyvirta.
     
The less than attractive situations portrayed are for real; they have not been set up for the camera. Niittyvirta has merely captured them on his compact digital while out walking on his normal routes, for instance in the Kallio and Hakaniemi districts, and in the downtown area of the capital.
      "I just shoot whatever comes in front of the lens. If I had gone out with the specific plan of hunting down suitable images, then there would have been more from the suburbs."
      The pictures on the cards are accompanied by the tried-and-tested postcard texts, such as Greetings from Helsinki, Spirit of Helsinki, Helsinki by Night, and Helsinki Many Faces.
      "There are even some captions that I have swiped from the brochure produced to advertise the new EU Chemicals Agency to be located in Helsinki", explains Niittyvirta.
     
The photographer's website now contains 150 postcards in digital form. Twenty of these have been printed up as real postcards. The printed cards will be distributed free in shops, restaurants, and cafés in town.
      "I've also thought we should take them to tourist info places", says Niittyvirta.
      He is unfazed by worries about Helsinki's image.
      "I believe that the cards will actually even make a positive impression, particularly among young people. There is no way this can be a destructive exercise."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.5.2006
     
Pekka Niittyvirta's exhibition Terveisiä Helsingistä! (Greetings from Helsinki!) is on show at the Hippolyte Gallery until May 23rd, and is also on the Net at www.greetings.fi


Links:
  Greetings from Helsinki (click to move forward)
  Pekka Niittyvirta, photographer

SANTTU PARKKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
santtu.parkkonen@hs.fi