My father once told me that my world is like a black and white image, but I guess my heart has found its own colours.

Anni Hanén’s exhibition takes us to the world of childhood, it is a journey between past and present. The poemlike exhibition Just Small Hiccups builds into a single story, where images and text express feelings and memories. Anni Hanén’s photographic book, carrying the same title, is also launched in connection to the exhibition.

Photographer Anni Hanén began her Just Small Hiccups story after she moved back to her childhood home with her own family. She photographed the feelings that arose in the house full of memories, with its garden and the nearby forest. This photographic story is a poem, made from a deeply personal point of view, however portraying the universal feelings to understand life. With the pictures and texts, it addresses growing up, how we see ourselves and each other in a family. The reflections of her own childhood combined with her child’s view create a visual dialogue between mother and son, past and present.

Anni Hanén’s visual world is poetic. The quiet rhythm and restrained quality of the images leave them open for interpretation and the viewer may find something of their own life in them. ”Even though the series started from a very personal point of view I always photograph to understand life in a more general way,” explains Anni Hanén. All of us are a part of a chain of generations. The experience of seeing yourself belonging to a family and its history comes forth in both the images and the texts discussing the themes of growing up. The texts are a part of the exhibition as well as the book.

Anni Hanén’s photographic book ”Just Small Hiccups”, published by the  German publishing house Kehrer Verlag, will be launched in connection to the exhibition. It will also be presented by the Photographic Gallery Hippolyte at the Helsinki Book Fair. Anni Hanén will be present at Hippolyte’s booth (nr. 6G84) to sign copies of her book on Friday 28 October 2016 3–5 p.m. and 6–8 p.m.

Anni Hanén is based in Helsinki and her works have been seen in both solo and group exhibitions since 2004. Hanén has worked on Just Small Hiccups since 2012 and parts of the series have been exhibited in various exhibitions and international photography festivals. www.annihanen.com

The Arts Promotion Centre Finland has supported the artist’s work.

28 October – 20 November 2016
ANNI HANÉN
Just Small Hiccups

Photographic Gallery Hippolyte
Yrjönkatu 8–10 courtyard, 00120 Helsinki
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Opening hours: Tue–Fri 12–5 pm, Sat–Sun 12–4 pm