Black & White - Photographs from the Fotocentrum Raseborg Collection

The exhibition consists of around fifty works from the collection, mainly classic black and white photographs, by leading Finnish photo artists as well as locally known photographers.
Fotocentrum Raseborg’s collection of photographic artworks is an important part of the history of photographic art in Finland and clearly illustrates the passage of time and the development of the art form. Fotocentrum donated the collection to the Provincial Museum of Western Uusimaa in 2025.
Fotocentrum Raseborg – Raaseporin Valokuvakeskus was founded in 1992 by then leading regional artist Vidar Lindqvist (b. 1948), and the first exhibitions were organized in Karjaa in Gallery Zebra that same year. The custom was that every exhibiting artist would leave one work behind. This was because the association did not charge the exhibitors any rent, covered all transportation costs, and insured the artworks.
The following year, 1993, the collection started to grow. In 1993, the collection started to grow, even though artists did not always comply with the exhibition contract's donation clause. Therefore, the collection is not without gaps. Many exhibitions were touring exhibitions, so one could not remove artworks from them. Many artists decided to donate several artworks, and sometimes the whole exhibition was left at the Fotocentrum. One of these artists was artist and professor of photographic art Matti Saanio (1925–2006). In 2017, before the association moved from the old Fokus building in Karis, a major archiving project began. Over 1,000 works were archived over the course of one and a half years.
In the exhibition, there are works by the following artist:
Martti Anttila, Stefan Bremer, Paul Brück, Lis Carpelan, Aleksandras Dapkevičius, Raakel Kuukka, Per Olov Jansson, Ben Kaila, Jan Kaila, Ritva Kovalainen, Kuutti Lavonen, Martti Matilainen, Jyrki Parantainen, Marja Pirilä, Tommi Pirnes, Christoffer Relander, Matti Saanio, Pentti Sammallahti, Christer Valtanen, Susanne Wahlström.
The exhibition is curated by the executive director of Fotocentrum Raseborg – Raaseporin Valokuvakeskus, Tanja Is-Selin and Chappe’s Chief Curator, Pia Hovi.