Harri Pälviranta (born 1971, Finland) is a photographic artist and researcher. He holds a Doctor of Arts degree in photography from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki (2012) and MA in Media Studies from the University of Turku (2005).
Recently his works has been included in exhibitions at the Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland), Benaki Museum in Athens (Greece), Kunst Haus Wien (Austria), Helsinki City Museum (Finland) and Deictorhallen, Haus der Photographie (Hamburg, Germany), and solo shows at Gallery H2O in Barcelona (Spain) and the Latvian Museum of Photography in Riga (Latvia). To name some achievements from the past, in 2007 he won the PhotoEspana Descubrimientos award and in 2010 he was awarded in the LeadAwards price in Hamburg. In 2020, he was awarded with a four-year full working grant by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (2020-2023).
At the core of Pälviranta’s artistic curiosity are issues relating to violence and masculinity, and often in his works he bridges these two themes. What is noteworthy is that he understands both of these concepts through their wide definitions. Like Slavoj Žižek, Pälviranta sees violence as a diverse practice: it can be seen as subjective and objective, and it can take both symbolic and systemic forms. Connected to this, his comprehension of masculinity is also layered: masculinity can be seen as culturally encoded and performed and renewed in commonplace practices.
Theoretically much of his work falls into practice that can be categorized as documentary. However, in Pälviranta’s use documentary does not only refer to classical documentaries, his work rather activates critical practices within post-documentary discourse. In his most recent finished projects, he connects with archival practices and uses documentary as a term also referring to materiality of the image.
