Twenty-something-year-old photographer, film and social media enthusiast with a burning wish to make the world a better place. Curious and driven, there is always something I find that intrigues and challenges me.
I value teamwork – collaboration and peer mentoring can move mountains.
Although driven and curious, collaborative and ambitious – I would (almost always) rather be hiking in the solitude of the mountains with my eyes peeled to the sky. This is what grounds me and reminds me of the beauty worth fighting for.
My wish is to benefit the world in the best way with the skillset I have.
I mainly practice photography. In the creative field, I have also worked with videos, design and curation. Other supporting skills that I have picked up through various courses and projects are time management, analysis, effective reading, organizing and fulfilling a successful project, finance management and leading a team.
I wish to work with people, organisations and companies, that value leaving the world a better place than when they found it. I like to work amidst inspiring people, who have a collaborative spirit and an open mind, an appreciation for effectiveness and creativity. I like to work in an environment where peer mentoring is valued.
In recent years I’ve taken part in courses to develop my knowledge of other areas, such as circular economy and effective altruism. I’ve taken part in various projects and started working in the Effective Altruism Estonia communications team as the team leader.
I’ve lived in Estonia my whole life. I grew up mainly in a little village on the biggest island, talking to trees and playing with rocks. I started taking and editing photos in middle school.
Although I had a fascination with photography, after finishing high school, I was still confused and didn’t know what path to step on. So for a couple of years, I worked in a little coffee shop. I took acting classes and started teaching drama to a high school theatre group. This experience in the world of acting gave me a beautiful insight into storytelling and the range of human emotions.
Then I moved to Tartu and studied Danish for a year, even attending a Danish summer school in Denmark.
In 2018 I finally started studying photography in art school. I began working as a photographer parallel to my studies. I’ve mainly done portraits, self-portraits and landscapes + various projects that have intrigued me. I’ve had four solo exhibitions so far. I find it important to share my work with others. Sometimes with the purpose to start a dialogue, other times to share beautiful pieces of our world.
I started photographing landscapes regularly on my hikes in 2019. I adore mountains specifically. The struggle to climb to the top, clouds around my feet, shapes of valleys, trees and bushes down below… I get a glorious feeling of freedom on a lonely mountaintop – there’s nothing else like it.
A substantial part of my work is on self-portraiture. Photographing myself is a form of self-expression in one hand and a long-term project driven by curiosity with the purpose to capture changes in myself over the years.
Quite often I dissolve into a subject, just a form to mould according to my imagination – no longer myself, just a figure shaped like me. And sometimes the camera is the one witnessing my most human state in its rawness and bareness – a moment where I couldn’t be more myself.
I try my best to empower my models during the photoshoot. To give somebody an experience, from which they leave with a nudge more confident than when they came in, is one of the best feelings.
The landscapes I see are often dreamy, filled with patterns and clouds. The natural order of the land is one of my greatest inspirations.
This admiration has led to two exhibitions of my landscape work.
500m above reality, in 2019, depicted a dreamy landscape from Southern Europe. The Inbetween Land, in 2021, featured cloudy valleys and mountaintops from the Tatra mountains.
The photo to your left is from the series The Inbetween Land.
The magic I feel in the midst of wilderness is what I try to present to the viewers of my work and bring it through my photographs.
I find it easier to experiment with whatever ideas pop into my head with only myself as the subject, the one in harm’s way. Whether it is photographing for hours on end, stripping myself bare in the middle of a hiking trail or walking over the snow with my bare feet in -20C degree weather – I am the one testing the limits.
I have always been fascinated with people and their uniqueness.
I often say that my favourite subjects are mountains and women. They’re both magnificent forces in this world. Both strong and mighty with a beauty that takes one’s breath away.
Education
2018-(2022) Pallas University of Applied Sciences, photography
Courses
Learn and Hack: Circular Economy for Youth Leaders, 2021
Duration: 6 weeks
The course gave me an understanding of circular economy. During the course we were introduced to design and systems thinking. We worked with a business with a circular business model to help troubleshoot their problems. Our business was Kira, a shoe company in Estonia. They make shoes from tires. They had trouble with marketing.
During the course:
Introduction to circular economy
Design and systems thinking
Product life-cycle and circular business models
Deep dive into circularity
Inspiring circular stories
Final presentations and reflection
Effective altruism course, 2021
Duration: 8 weeks
By Effective Altruism Estonia
Introduction to effective altruism and the biggest problems in the world.
Weekly deep-dive and discussion based on prior reading (articles, research etc)
Experience
Effective Altruism Estonia, from 2021
Communications team, member
Communications team, leader (from Feb 2022)
Photography lecturer, 2022
Tartu Vocational College
Erasmus Youth Project, 2021, participant
Erasmus Youth Project, (2022), organizer
Organizing exhibitions 2018-2021 (preparing work, marketing, curating – 4 exhibitions)
Drama teacher, school theatre group Kruvikeeraja, 2015-2017 (writing plays, directing)
Leading games for children and youth in Luke manor, 2021 (putting together a photography themed treasure hunt, preparing, leading – introduction to photography, interacting with children & youth)
Other experiences that are not relevant to my career, but have made me a better person
Solo hiking in Italy & Spain for 2 months in the summer of 2019
Solo hiking in Scotland in January of 2020
Hiking in Poland and France during the summer of 2020
Hiking in Tenerife, in November of 2021
And of course – regular hikes around Estonia – my home country
Hiking grounds me & makes me see the big picture. It is my why, the reason to do and to be.
Awards
Art scholarship from Pallas University of Applied Sciences, 2021
The aim of the scholarship is to value students’ work in their specific field and across the art field.
