Congratulations, Heli!

I’ve written about this multi­media piece couple of times earlier. But please bear with me one more time.

Today I had the honor of receiving the Multi­media of the Year 2013 Award (Suomen Lehti­ku­vaajat / Finnish Pressp­ho­to­graphers Association) together with Heli Kaskinen in Helsinki for DocImages.

My role in this production was simply to act as a mentor and a producer — the actual hard work was done by Heli.

It’s her story, her honesty — and especially her courage which makes this piece what it is.

If you have seen it, you know what I am talking about. And if you haven’t, it’s about the time you do (click here).

I don’t know if it is the fact that one is older — or is it the teacher in me… but hearing the applause for a work of a student you have pushed forward really touches you. Maybe more than awards you have received alone by yourself in the past.

Because I can say: “We did this”. We. Not the “I”. Not the “me, myself, I…” what we photo­graphers tend fall into sometimes. But: “We”.

All the merits of this work are Heli’s. I cannot emphasize that enough. You could say that technically it leaves a lot to hope for (and I totally I agree) and I take full blame for that. And I add: that was a conscious choice.

But with all it’s flaws it yet again proves the point my students have heard me saying more times than they care to remember:

“The three most important things in multi­media? The story, the story… and the story”.

Congra­tu­la­tions Heli. It is a true honor to work with an artist like you.