Marjaana Kella

Education

Kella was a student at the Free Art School from 1985 until 1986, and moved on to study photography at the University of Art and Design Helsinki from 1987 to 1993. In 2014 she received a Doctorate in photography from Alto University, her dissertation was entitled 'Translations - Landscape, the face and the presentation of the photograph.

Life and Work

Kella has been teaching since the 1990s. She works on the MA program and is a Senior Lecturer in contemporary art and photography. In 2014 she was appointed vice-dean of the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts Helsinki.

Her photographic work reflects on the genre of portraiture, challenging its traditional composition to question identity, reality, and authenticity. Talking about her work, Marjaana Kella has stated "My photographs are kind of studies of perception and experience, or of the interface between people’s external and internal spaces."

The series Reversed (1996–1997) presents unusual portraits of individuals turning away from the camera, represented only by the back of their heads. The portraits, almost non-gestural, therefore ignore the subject's facial features to create pictorial, and textured compositions renewing the genre's aesthetic.

For Hypnosis(1997–2001) the artist scrutinises the suspended moment of hypnosis during which her subjects' effort at self-representation are disrupted.

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Publications