Antti Yrjönen
Helsinki, Finland
I’m a Finnish photojournalist and documentary photographer with more than ten years of experience working in Finland and internationally. My assignments have taken me from everyday life and politics at home to humanitarian issues, conflict and crisis in places such as Somalia, Syria, South Sudan and Ukraine. I work with media, NGOs and news agencies, and have also assisted international media in Finland as a photographer-fixer.
For me, photography is a form of dialogue between the person photographed, the viewer and the photographer. I’m interested in nuance: the details, contradictions and ordinary moments that are easily missed. Sometimes that means quiet humour, sometimes difficult truths. At its best, photography does not close a story down, but opens it up.
Alongside photography, I write on visual culture, journalism ethics, media criticism and press freedom. I have a regular column in Finland’s Journalisti magazine, and I occasionally lecture on responsible photojournalism, conflict reporting and freedom of speech.
My work has been published among others by The New York Times, National Geographic, BBC, Le Temps, Bloomberg, Haaretz, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Condé Nast Traveller, Helsingin Sanomat and Suomen Kuvalehti.
My work has received several awards in Finland and internationally, including five News Photo of the Year awards, Sports Photo of the Year, recognition from the Giga Photo Award and selection for the World Report Award programme. I was also part of the team awarded the Suomen Kuvalehti Journalist Award in 2020 for the collaborative State of Emergencyproject during the pandemic.
I studied photojournalism at Tampere University. For assignments in more demanding environments, I keep my hostile environment and emergency first aid training up to date.
If you’re working on something meaningful — a story, assignment, article or longer collaboration — I’d be happy to hear from you.
2026 - Giga Photo Award — 3rd Place, Single Image, 2026 - Festival of Ethical Photography — Selected, 2026 - World Report Award — Single Shot Shortlist, 2025 - Finnish Press Photos — News Photo of the Year, 2024 - Finnish Press Photos — Sports Photo of the Year, 2023 - Finnish Press Photos — News Photo of the Year, 2021 - Finnish Press Photos — News Photo of the Year, 2020 - Suomen Kuvalehti Journalist Award, 2019 - Finnish Press Photos — News Photo of the Year, 2018 - Finnish Press Photos — News Photo of the Year, 2018 - Beautiful Book Prize — Finnish Book Art Committee
- Breaking news
- Conflict
- Crisis
- Editorial
- Military embed
- Portrait
- Reporting
- Sports
- Video capture
