At the turn of the millennium, Finnish contemporary art made a leap forward. Photography and video art, in particular, started to gain critical acclaim. The most recognized Finnish contemporary artist internationally is Eija-Liisa Ahtila. She is followed by Salla Tykkä, Laura Horelli, Elina Brotherus and Esko Männikkö, all of whom work with lens-based media.

For Finnish photographic artists, the increasing visibility on international platforms was heaven sent. They had begun to establish themselves on the local art scene in the mid-1980s, but today photography occupies a central role in Finnish contemporary art. Advances in the social and economic situation of photographic artists as well as the esteem of their medium have been remarkable.

In the 1990s, photographic artists’ upward mobility manifested at the level of works as well. Many favoured installations using a variety of media. Subjective photography was a popular trend, in which technical quality was judged second to personal expression. The contrast with today’s export photography is striking. Photography is now branded as pure. It is glossy and colourful as well as compact and large-scale – a true rival to painting.

At exhibitions in Finland, one can usually tell if artists working with photography have training in photography or in the fine arts. In a small country, people simply learn to recognize the style of each artist. Schools with their strong traditions and influential teachers tend to leave their mark on students. The state art-administration system that continues to have separate councils for visual art and photographic art also nourishes the boundary between the two disciplines.

At university level, two major educational institutions produce artists using photography. The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts (FAFA) and the Aalto University School of Art and Design (TaiK) are both situated in the capital. The first degree programme in photography was established at TaiK in the early 1970s. At FAFA, courses in photography have existed since the establishment of the Department of Time and Space Arts in 1993, but as an MA specialization it will become official only in 2011.

TaiK and FAFA are both highly regarded institutions. Offering Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees as well as doctorates. The rate of national admission to both universities is among the lowest in Finland, below ten per cent. However, the number of foreign applicants is constantly growing, in 2009, close to one in five students came from abroad.

TaiK is the largest art and design school in Scandinavia, with approximately 1,900 students. Its history goes back to the early 1870s, and it gained university status in 1973. FAFA, in turn, is the only institution providing university-level training in the fine arts in Finland. Its history goes back to 1848, and it has held university status since 1993. It is a small institution, with some 260 students.

At TaiK, the degree programme in photography is currently based at the Department of Media, there are two professors in the programme, Jyrki Parantainen and Merja Salo. In 2009, some forty-five students were working towards their BA degrees and some fifty students towards their MA degrees.

The BA degree at TaiK provides students with basic professional abilities. The MA permits them to deepen their learning in photography and to specialize in photographic art, photojournalism or commercial art with photography. However, art is the principal interest for approximately two-thirds of photography students.

Several important teachers have worked at TaiK and left their mark on generations of students: Stefan Bremer, Ulla Jokisalo, Ismo Kajander, Timo Kelaranta, Marjaana Kella, Jorma Puranen, Matti Saanio and Pentti Sammallahti, to mention only a few. Internationally recognized photographers and contemporary artists have been invited as visiting teachers. Martin Parr acted as a professor in the early 1990s, while the most recent guests include Tom Hunter, Roger Ballen and Jacqueline Hassink.

The degree programme in photography is known internationally as the base for the Helsinki School. The notion builds upon a project on internationalization started in the mid-1990s. Timothy Persons developed a concept of a ‘virtual’ gallery that takes student works to international art fairs. Preparing for and participating in fairs are included as part of their studies.

The Helsinki School concept was actually launched in 2004 when Persons and Puranen curated an exhibition to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of photography education at TaiK. To date, the membership includes sixty people, all at one time students or teachers at the university. The size and composition of the group allow the mixing of emerging artists with established names, the youngest generation will be presented in an exhibition entitled Photography and Video Now in the Helsinki City Art Museum from the 24th February till 23rd May.

TaiK has offered postgraduate studies since 1981 thus far some seventy-five doctorates have been completed. At TaiK, part of the doctoral dissertation may be an art production or a product-development project. In all cases, a written thesis is to be included. To date, eight doctors have graduated in photography of which most of them included an art production in their dissertation, such as Petri Anttonen and Taneli Eskola. There are at the moment fifteen active doctoral students in photography.

At FAFA, the studies leading to the BA and MA qualifications are organized in four degree programmes: sculpture, painting, printmaking and ‘time and space arts’. A separate department is dedicated to doctoral studies. The degree programme in ‘time and space arts’ provides three specializations: photography, moving image, and site-and-situation-specific arts. The faculty is small but reputable and boasts Eija-Liisa Ahtila as one of the professors.

Photography became established at FAFA through Lauri Anttila who worked as rector in the early 1990s. Pertti Kekarainen, Lecturer in Photography at FAFA, says that FAFA does not train people specifically to become photographers, but instead visual artists who use photography. Still, he finds it worthwhile to provide students with knowledge about the medium of photography. Some ten students are currently specializing in photography.

Kekarainen conceives the roles of FAFA and TaiK to be supplementary. The main difference stems from their traditions, especially from the fact that TaiK has always trained professional photographers, not just artists. Moreover, currently, TaiK is heavily concentrating on digital photography. Based on their curricula it also appears that TaiK puts emphasis on the medium of photography and its tradition, while at FAFA the principal context is contemporary art and the history of art.

Kekarainen himself has never studied photography, nor has he used the title photographer, his background studying painting and sculpture has influenced his practice. ‘I think like a painter or sculptor, my interest is in the structure of pictures,’ he says. Kekarainen has also taught in the degree programme in photography at TaiK, and he is involved in the Helsinki School.

FAFA began issuing doctoral degrees in 1997. Right from the start, the focus of the programme has been on creative artistic work. Neither the model of sciences nor the British studio- or practice-based PhD programmes were emulated. Doctoral studies at FAFA are quite unique in that as much as eighty per cent of credits are yielded by creative work.

The doctorate at FAFA requires a ‘public demonstration of knowledge and skills’ that comprises of creative production and a theoretical thesis. The former usually consists of a series of research-related exhibitions. The theoretical part may be quite free in form, not even text-based. The ambition is to develop author-oriented theory about art and artistic practice.

Thus far FAFA has admitted some thirty postgraduate students and five doctorates have been completed, one of which falls in the field of photography. Jan Kaila, current Professor of Artistic Research, graduated in 2002. His demonstration of knowledge and skill consisted of a solo exhibition and the book Photographicality and Representation in Contemporary Art.

Pertti Kekarainen is enrolled for a doctorate at FAFA, aiming to graduate in 2010. His research pertains to the relationship of the photograph to space which consists of a series of exhibitions and artworks along with a written piece. Heli Rekula, another member of the Helsinki School, is also a doctoral student at FAFA.

Doctoral studies raise wide interest among Finnish artists since the concept is still fresh and promises individual leeway. The chance for discussion and feedback is tempting, and international mobility is made possible through exchange programmes. Kekarainen principally wished to expose himself to extensive reading and thinking. He also observes that given the abundance of artists, qualifications are needed to secure posts at art schools.

Finding appropriate employment for all future doctorate-holders might become problematic; a new job definition has emerged, but the financial basis remains unsolved. The Academy of Finland and the Arts Council of Finland had a joint funding programme for artistic research covering both doctoral and post-doctoral levels in the period from 1998 to 2007. Aalto University is currently advertising several post-doctoral positions, one of which is situated in the Department of Photography.