Photography has been Elina’s passion for over two decades. Few years ago she made a decision to dedicate herself fully to photography, she quit her job and studied photography in Open Academy of Estonian Academy of Arts. She then took a master class for Creative Documentary & Photojournalism by Magnum Photos at the Speos Photographic Institute.
Her photography projects are mostly long-running studies on society and environment, conveyed in personality based photo essays. Her own values are important for choosing the subjects, the stories are characterised by intimacy and getting close to subjects, while not being intrusive and affecting the scene. Her goal is to record her own emotions into the pictures, so that the viewer will be able to perceive the scenes with authenticity, just as she saw them while being there.
Education
1991 Chemistry, University of Tartu, Estonia
1999 MBA, Estonian Business School, Estonia
2015 Photography, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia
2016 Creative Documentary and Photojournalism, Magnum Photos-Spéos
Awards and exhibitions
2015 Graduation exhibition, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia
2016 Graduation exhibition, Spéos, Paris, France
2016 Group exhibition, Magnum Photos, Paris, France
2016 Selected finalist screening and open air exhibition, Voies Off Festival, Arles, France
2017 Solo Exhibition “Thinning out the clouds”, Spéos Gallery, Paris, France
2017 Chosen into 30 finalists at Backlight Photo Festival, Tampere, Finland
2018 Voies Off shortlist screening and group exhibition, Arles, France
2018 5th Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography, Barcelona, Spain
2019 Finalist at Lensculture PORTRAIT Awards 2019
2019 Girl Gang group exhibition, Le Mois de la Photo-OFF, Paris, France
Publications
2017 Interview, Actuphoto, France
2017 Interview, Fisheye Magazine
2017 Assignment for L’Obs Magazine, France
2018 Assignment for Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information’s Go-Far project, Singapore
2018 Story about Estonia’s alternative education system, TODAY, Singapore