Meeri Koutaniemi
Echo
Helsinki, Finland
Meeri Koutaniemi, 28-old freelance photographer, was born in Lapland and lives currently around the world. Koutaniemi studied photojournalism at the University of Tampere, but left her studies to dedicate her time for independent projects abroad. Her main interests are political and social issues concerning human rights and minorities.
Koutaniemi has worked as a photographer and a journalist in over 50 countries and filmed documentary movies in Bolivia and Mexico.
In 2012 and 2013 Koutaniemi was selected in Finland as the Photographer of the Year and won the category of Foreign Reportage with her reportage Taken about female circumcision.
Koutaniemi is a founder member in an Italian Photo Agency Echo and Finnish Collective 11. In 2012 Koutaniemi received the Memorial Award of Tim Hetherington in United States and the Memorial Award of Carina Appel in Finland 2013. Koutaniemi has exhibited her photos in more than 20 exhibitions around the world and her first book Oasis was published in Finland in 2013.
In 2014 Koutaniemi won the Visa D'or Daily Press Award in Perpignan, France and FreeLens Award in Lumix Photofestival in Hannover with her exhibited documentary work Taken. Koutaniemi was selected as a participant to Joop Swart and VII Masterclass in 2014.
- Arts
- Conflict
- Crisis
- Editorial
- Fashion
- Interview
- Medical
- Military embed
- Portrait
- Reporting
- RISC training
- Video capture
- Wildlife