Bio
Milja Laurila (b. 1982 in Helsinki, Finland) graduated with an MA in Photography from Aalto University in Helsinki in 2010. Laurila uses found photographs as material for
her work. Online archives and antiquarian bookshops are her treasure troves. The most interesting ones are from the field of
medicineand
psychiatry. In her
early works on film, she used pictures from her childhood family album. Laurila detaches the scientific images from their original contexts. She is interested in the relationship between words and photographs and in the recontextualization of archival images and texts. By leaving out the captions, she places the images in a new situation: “I give them a chance to speak for themselves, with a voice of their own”, Laurila explains. Over the past few years, her exhibitions include:
Singapore International Photography Festival (2018), Purdy Hicks Gallery (London, 2017),
Shoot Gallery (Oslo, 2017), Ama Gallery (Helsinki, 2016),
Gallery Taik Persons (Berlin, 2016), Paris Photo (Paris, 2016), Museum of Contemporary Art MOCAK (Krakow, 2016) and Photo London (London, 2016). Her works are included in public and private collections in Europe and USA, and she is featured in
The Helsinki School photography books published by
Hatje Cantz in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2014.