Alum of the Year Iiu Susiraja started pursuing photography for fun – “Things just blew up overnight”
There was a time when Iiu Susiraja thought she would never be an artist. Today, her photos are exhibited in some of the most esteemed museums in the world. Susiraja is one of Uniarts Helsinki’s Alumni of the Year 2025.
It was 2004, and Iiu Susiraja sat outside on the grass by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, sipped on beer and looked at the museum building.
“It didn’t even cross my mind that my art could ever be displayed there. It was the exact opposite: back then, I wondered if I was ever going to be an artist of any kind,” Susiraja says and lets out a laugh.
Back then, Susiraja was studying textile design, but she completed her studies by the power of routine and struggled to find inspiration.
Before her studies in textile design, Susiraja had applied to various schools with no success, including the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Turku Drawing School and Lahti Institute of Design.
She also fell a few points short of being admitted to the Wetterhoff ceramics and glass department at the Häme University of Applied Sciences.
“In hindsight, I’ve been thinking that it was a good thing. I wasn’t ready to be an artist that young. I needed to live and gain more life experience,” Susiraja says.
A strong urge to take photos
At least according to her own words, Susiraja was not particularly gifted artistically as a child, and her family was not really culturally or artistically inclined in their hobbies.
Nevertheless, she enjoyed letting out her creativity. Little Iiu – whose birth name is Pirre – attended the school craft club and the church drawing club and took ceramics classes with her mother at the local adult learning centre.
For a while, she also took drawing classes for children at the Turku Drawing School.
“It was a nice but expensive hobby that I had to quit due to financial reasons.”
Photography did not enter the picture until she was an adult. For no reason in particular, Susiraja got herself her first digital camera in 2007.
“My parents left for our summer cottage, and I biked to the post office to pick up my new camera. I immediately started taking photos that same evening,” Susiraja reminisces.
When figuring out what she should photograph, she soon thought of herself, and her camera clicked on. The memory card captured a cheek and a plump arm, for example.
“The general vibe in my first photos was serious. I wasn’t able to see them through the lens of fine-art photography,” Susiraja says.
But taking self-portraits felt natural.
“I wouldn’t even want to photograph other people. When it’s just me in front of the camera, I don’t need to be shy. I get to do things at my own pace, without having to explain anything to anyone.”
A body that highlights varied interpretations
Soon, Susiraja started pursuing photography studies at the Paasikivi Folk High School in Turku.
After that, she applied to and got into the Turku Arts Academy, where her teacher Renja Leino encouraged Susiraja to show more of herself in the pictures.
“I had taken photos of myself but not in a way that would allow people to recognise me from them. Leino urged me to be bold and show my face. That’s when my photos started having a humorous element in them, and it became my thing as an artist.”
The humour in Susiraja’s photos is absurd, dry and rooted in everyday life. Viewers can expect the unexpected when it comes to her poses: you may see her with tights pulled over her breasts or with a dartboard or a big teddy bear between her legs.
One of her best-known works is Woman (2010), where the serious-looking artist stands with a white knitted hat on her head and gloves stuffed with herrings on her hands.
“My way of looking at my pictures is simply that they show a person with an object or objects. That’s it,” Susiraja says.
She says that she doesn’t intend to create art that is socially opinionated, let alone sexually provocative, at least not consciously. However, that is how her art is often interpreted, which does not come as a surprise to Susiraja.
“If I had a small frame and I took the same kinds of photos of myself, people would probably interpret them differently. My body is like a highlighter pen. You can’t help but notice the mark it makes, and it will stir the viewer’s thoughts no matter how neutral they would want to be.”
Surprising professional steps forward
In 2008, Susiraja’s works were on display at the Nunes Gallery in Kamppi, Helsinki, and in 2010, the Finnish Museum of Photography exhibited her photos in the museum’s project room.
The exhibition, titled Everyday Life, Style: 100%, was followed by a cover story in the weekly supplement Nyt published by Finland’s biggest daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
“You could say that things just blew up overnight. After that Helsingin Sanomat article it was no longer unclear whether I’m an artist.”
She was launched into fame with surprising intensity even on the global scene after she gave an interview to the popular British online publication Huffington Post.
“I didn’t know what Huffington Post was, but the journalist had seen my photos online and wanted an interview,” Susiraja says.
Susiraja gave her brief answers to the journalist’s questions with her limited English skills by email.
“The next day, 30,000 people had visited my website. For a moment I was so confused, I had no idea what was happening. Then I realised that my interview had been published online.”
The story paved a way for her works to be featured in exhibitions abroad, such as at MoMA PS1 in New York, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum in Norway and François Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles.
Her CV is impressive also on the Finnish soil. She had a solo exhibition at Kiasma in 2019, and her works are included in the collections of the Finnish National Gallery at Kiasma.
But gaining international fame and prestige does not necessarily lead to a lavish life, and even Susiraja’s artistic practice is largely dependent on grants.
“The arts are going through financial struggles everywhere right now, and people aren’t buying works. I still take my photos at home because I can’t afford a studio. If I received a grant for a longer period I could consider getting my own studio.”
Artistry is a decision
Susiraja thinks that everyone can choose for themselves when and based on which criteria they call themselves an artist.
“For me personally, it was my education that sealed the deal. I wouldn’t consider myself an artist if I hadn’t gotten into the Turku Arts Academy and later to the Academy of Fine Arts,” she says.
She has a distinctly international career, and at the moment, she is the best-known Finnish artist in the field of photography.
Yet, Susiraja says that she never even considered getting her artist education outside of her home country.
“Naturally, it’s difficult to get into arts schools in Finland. But I think higher education here is high-quality, and people hold Uniarts Helsinki in high regard for a good reason. I think it’s great that tax funds are being used to organise teaching like this,” Susiraja says.
Art can make a difference
Susiraja finds that art has major significance in everyday life and within communities. She would appreciate seeing more art on display in public spaces.
“There’s a case to be made about putting art on display in hospitals, for example. Art can give us a little lift and help us momentarily break free from our everyday bubbles.”
Susiraja argues that the ultimate value of art is measured in the emotions that they evoke in the viewer.
“My hope is that people would get the same strong emotion from my works as what I have felt when looking at works by Heli Rekula and Markus Copper. And that they leave an impression and resonate.”
Susiraja has a disciplined way of working, and she plans her days and photo sessions carefully in advance. She comes up with potential topics, schedules the days in her calendar and acquires the props she needs for her shoots well in advance.
“It is work, but it’s ridiculously fun. Imagine that moment when you’re looking at an image on a camera screen and you intuitively know that it was a hit – that feeling is addictive, and there’s nothing that beats it.”
Text: Elli Collan
Iiu Susiraja, b. 1975
- Graduated from the Turku Arts Academy’s photography programme in 2012 and from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2018
- Known for her self-portrait photography and distinct, humorous style
- Her works are included in the collections of major museums, such as the Finnish National Gallery, Kiasma and Moderna Museet
- Solo exhibition at MoMa PS (New York, 2023), for example
- Lives and works in Turku
The title of Alum of the Year is awarded each year to select alumni from Uniarts Helsinki’s three academies who have highlighted the unique value and role of art and artist education in an exemplary manner through their work.
