mikkotakkunen/photographer/blog

The Finnish prime minister Jyrki Katainen was in London on Friday 30 March to visit his British counterpart David Cameron at 10 Downing Street. I got an assignment from Helsingin Sanomat to photograph Katainen and Cameron at the Number 10′s White Drawing Room during 2 minute exchange of pleasantries open to a very small number of news media, before the two statesmen disappeared for a private lunch.

Ran 31 March 2012.

The photo as it was filed.

Some outtakes.

I photographed two London based Ukrainian philanthropists, lawyer Victoria Volkova and real estate assets manager Iryna Tandura, for Forbes Ukraine’s Forbes Woman supplement in February 2012. Ran March 2012.

Big thanks to my partner, photographer Veronica Sanchis who assisted me with the lights.

Some outtakes and an uncropped version of the photo that ran:

On south bank of River Thames…

At Tate Modern 5th floor balcony…

At Tate Modern 7th floor bar…

…and Millennium Bridge…

New York Times’ Social Media Editor Liz Heron in February 2012 for Journalisti magazine (FIN) at News:Rewired conference on digital media at Microsoft Center in London.

Ran 22 March 2012.

The shoot was done during a conference coffee break after Heron’s keynote speech. I was with her maybe 5 minutes. The brief was to shoot a vertical portrait in environment with a lot of plain surface on which to lay on text. I chose to photograph Heron in the Microsoft Center lobby with plenty of available natural light. Tried to include a lot of floor and window on the shots to give relatively plain surface to which editors could potentially put text on.

Some outtakes

Tear sheets from mid-March assignment to Northern Ireland.

Alexandra Park in Belfast is divided into Protestant and Catholic parts with a peace wall. In September 2011, the wall got a gate that is open 6 hours a day to encourage interaction among the two communities.

Front page photo in Helsingin Sanomat (FIN) 25 March 2012. The peace wall gate.

Front Foreign Section photo in Helsingin Sanomat (FIN) 25 March 2012. Young family with their son in the Catholic side of Alexandra Park.

Psykologi magazine (FIN) feature on the Finnish Psychologists for Social Responsibility (NGO) commissioned portrait series of a group Palestinian women from the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon.

Featured portraits: Portraits of Wadha Al-Sabek (left) and Zohour Akkawi (top right).

Al-Sabek and Akkawi are part of a so-called Brave Girls of Shatila, a group of Palestinian women who did humanitarian aid work in their community during the immediate aftermath of the Sabra-Shatila massacre in 1982 and throughout the 1980s during the War of the Camps.

An exhibition of the portrait series is currently touring Finland. The project also has its own dedicated website.

NB The magazine cropped the portraits. Here they are they were filed.

I photographed the founder and chairman of high-end tour company Abercrombie & Kent, Mr Geoffrey Kent at the company’s London headquarters for the Wall Street Journal for a Personal Journal ‘What’s in Your Bag?’ feature. I made portraits of Mr Kent at his office, with and without his Louis Vuitton suitcase, which had a central piece in the article. I also photographed the contents of the suitcase. First time I shot still life.

Assignment took place end of February. Article ran 8 March 2012.

WSJ ended up running a cut-out of a portrait of Mr Kent done against white background, along with some of the items from the suitcase.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203986604577255570213214922.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_1#articleTabs=article.

I prefer these portraits of Mr Kent.

Monocle24 journalist and producer Markus Hippi at Monocle headquarters in Marylebone, London, for Finnish magazine Journalisti in January 2012. Came out March 8 issue.

You can listen to Monocle24 here.

Some outtakes…

Markus in the Monocle24 studio recording some intros for future programs…

Markus editing some of the recorded intros.

Markus in the Monocle conference room with a colleague.

Friday prayers at Jamme Masjid mosque in Brick Lane for Helsingin Sanomat (FIN) for an article about multicultural London. Article ran 4 March 2012 on the front page of the paper’s Foreign Section.

The photo as it was filed.

Another photo from the assignment that I quite liked.

Photo of Purge, play by Finnish playwright Sofi Oksanen, at Arcola Theatre in Hackney, East London, for Helsingin Sanomat (FIN) on 24 February 2012. Article ran 26 February 2012 in the Culture Section.

Purge, the play, is based on a best selling Finnish novel of the same name written by Ms Oksanen.

Author and playwright Sofi Oksanen was present on the night and I was given 3 minutes to take couple of portraits of her. This is my favourite. It didn’t run in the paper though.

Some of the other frames I took of the play.

I photographed Liz Donegan, one of the evicted residents of the Priory Hall estate in Dublin, in January during a 3-day assignment to Ireland for Helsingin Sanomat (FIN). Article and two photos ran Sunday 12 February 2012.

All the Priory Hall estate’s 250 families were forced to evict once the Dublin City Council found out the Priory Hall apartments were not built according to fire regulations. Liz Donegan and the other resident live now in limbo. They live in temporary residences but have to continue paying mortgages of their Priory Hall apartments, to which they do not have access to. The builder of the estate is being sued, but whether or not he will convicted is another matter. Liz Donegan is hopeful that her mortgage could be moved to another apartment. She and other Priory Hall residents do not believe that the estate can be repaired. At the moment, no work is being done on the estate and outsiders are not allowed on site. Former residents can access their own apartments only with appropriate IDs and an escort.