Lada Suomenrinne is an international artist with one foot inside Sápmi and one foot outside of it. Sápmi is the northern homeland of the Sámi, the only recognised Indigenous People in the EU area, divided into four parts by the borders of the nation-states Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
Working lens-based and preferably on Sámi land, Suomenrinne constantly has to deal with the complex history of photography, which includes its abusive use against minorities. Suomenrinne found their way by making the camera transform from a rather cruel tool into a ceremonial one.
Suomenrinne grew up in Njuorggán (Nuorgam), a small community in the Finnish part of Sápmi, close to the Norwegian border.
Eight photographic artworks by Suomenrinne were displayed at the Barents Spektakel Festival in northern Norway in 2025. Outside a building formerly used as an air navigation beacon and flight monitoring station, visitors could experience the photos, printed on acrylic and aluminium and installed along the walls and concrete.
The series is part of Suomenrinne’s ongoing art project Emergency Weather. The artist explains that the title is based in a desire to comment on the current and dire situation in Sápmi and the Arctic, where the loss of nature, cultural traditions and vital knowledge looms.
This text is excerpted from a collaboration between the Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes and the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute as part of the pARTir initiative funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. The original article by Hilde Sørstrøm appeared in the northern Norwegian culture webzine Hakapik.
