Ismo Hölttö is a Finnish documentary photographer

Documentary photography

Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit...

 known for his monochrome

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 portraits of Roma people and others living in the cities and countryside of Finland in the 1960s, a time of rapid societal change.

Hölttö shot the main body of his work during the ten years between 1962 and 1971 while working as a goldsmith. When he started documenting the Finnish people, he was only 22; when he ended this series he had turned 31.

His works have been exhibited in France, Denmark, and Lithuania, as well as in Finland.

Books of Hölttö's works

• Mikko Savolainen and Ismo Höltto (photographs)̈, Aku-Kimmo Ripatti (text). Suomea tämäkin. Jyväskylä: Gummerus, 1970. 
• Kari Huttunen (text), Ismo Hölttö and Mikko Savolainen (photographs). Raportti suomen mustalaisista. Jyvaskylassa: K. J. Gummerus Osakeyhtion, 1972. ISBN 951200089X. 
• Mikko Savolainen (text and photographs) and Ismo Hölttö (photographs). Vanhuksia. [Ilomantsi: M. Savolainen], 1982. ISBN 951994186X. 
• Ismo Hölttö. Ihminen pääosassa. Kuvia suomalaisista. Helsinki: Ismo Hölttö, 1989. ISBN 951-99835-5-4. 
• Ismo Hölttö. People in the Lead Role: Photographs of Finns. Helsinki: Ismo Hölttö, 1991. ISBN 952-90-2015-5. 
• Ismo Hölttö. Pieniä Ihmisiä. Helsinki: Erweko Painotuote, 2002. ISBN 9529148208. 
• Ismo Hölttö. Valokuvia / Photographs. Helsinki: Suomen Valokuvataiteen Museo, 2008. 

External links

• Hölttö's site, with over 70 photographs online Article about Ihminen pääosassa for an exhibition in Helsinki
• "Ismo Hölttö - Ihminen Pääosassa", article about an exhibition held in Tampere in early 2006. (13 March 2007 version via Wayback: the browser's character set may need to be set to ISO-8859-1 for correct display.) Exhibition notice