Funding Young Documentary Photographers Through the Work of Jouko Lehtola

1998-1999

Our favourite Finnish photographer, Jouko Lehtola, passed away in 2010. His photos were some of the most honest portrayals of Finnish youth we've ever seen. Before he passed away he said that, "I know that I'm not going to have kids, that my works are my children. My exhibitions and my images. They will live after I'm gone. In their own silent way they will tell what was relevant in me. How I saw and how I felt."

Now, The Jouko Lehtola Foundation is organising a sales exhibition, Jönssi, which opened today at the Lasipalatsi Gallery in Helsinki. The exhibition aims to raise funds and offer grants to young documentary photographers so that Lehtola's spirit can live on through the work of others. Hundreds of original prints are available for sale at the exhibition, some which are printed by Lethola himself.

Here are some of our favourite photographs of his from the series Young Heroes.

The Jouko Lehtola foundation's exhibition Jönssi opens today, November 4, at the Lasipalatsi Gallery in Helsinki, Finland, and runs until November 16. See more of Jouko's photos here.

, 1996

Untitled (Panda Boy),1996