Yle’s Silja Viitala received the prestigious photojournalism award: “I might ask the Prime Minister about the dog”

Silja Viitala was awarded the Patricia Seppälä Foundation Prize, especially for her work on politics. The subject matter is serious, but Viitala’s pictures often contain humour.

– There is warmth and humour in the gaze of Viitala and her camera, but the images also convey joy, disappointment and boredom. Viitala’s images are never distant,” says the explanatory statement.

Viitala has been photographing for Yle for five years, three of them on politics. He can often be spotted in the gallery of the Parliament. There, situations and locations are tightly framed and small things are big.

Viitala observes faces and facial expressions: even a frown can tell you a lot.

– The general thing for photographers is that people’s hands are interested. If someone touches a colleague on the shoulder in the plenary hall and says something, there is a small moment of humanity, says the award -winning photojournalist.

Viitala meets politicians as people

Viitala says she is working hard with her own personality.

– I’m talking about Pori dialect and I may ask the prime minister how his dog can. Even if they are highly positioned decision -makers, they are also some of the fathers and children of someone. They may have sick parents and the same burden of life as everyone else.

In the award criteria, Viitala also praises the fact that he makes the world look absurd. Indeed, Viitala admits to being a friend of all kinds of fun.

If he sees pizza boxes at the House of Government at the time of the government negotiations, he presses the trigger.

– There’s a certain comedy and what’s wrong with it. They are hungry and they can order pizza, but it looks fun when a nicely dressed assistant carries pizza boxes in a fine milieu.

We asked Viitala to pick up their own five pictures of the year. They are below with justification.

Silja Viitala’s top five

For Viitala, there is something special about recording presidential elections.

– They have a nature photography spirit. There’s no need to ask anyone to do anything all the time, he says.

In the picture, Halla-aho and Stubb skate with water and Haavisto takes a special look. That is why Viitala does not know.

– It is certain that his expression is not related to scooping, even though it looks like it in the photo. Because men are from different sides of the party field, here you can see a setting where Haavisto stumbles on the right.

Viitala emphasizes that it is important to be aware that this is a photo. It’s one stopped moment from the world.

Silja Viitala was in Parliament when a parliamentary agreement was emerging from YLE’s financial surgery. As he walked past the Basic Finns’ group room, he happened to see something interesting.

The picture shows a symbol that is created at the end of the viewer.

Silja Viitala likes the picture because it is a different perspective on a familiar situation. The result of the presidential election is becoming clear. Usually it is described by showing the waiting face. Viitala chose otherwise.

– There they are waiting in the line that the result of the pre -votes will fall on the big skrine. It is possible that they have agreed in advance to stand in a row and keep their hands out of the way.

It is also possible that the reaction is spontaneous and intuitive.

– When it comes to an important moment, it is expected whether the faija comes from the preal, we are on one front. I like the picture because there is a bit of something else.

– It has a pretty good light that hits Suhose from the upper left. His expression is telling. There is sadness, but he doesn’t look discouraged.

Viitala often describes in Parliament. In this picture, the fact that politicians’ decisions also affect Harri Suhonen and the service center.

Viitala describes Minister Wille Rydman (ps.) Described as a classic portrait after the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.

– Putting a person next to the window is a familiar thing for all of us. The light became good. Lightning almost splashes in the room of the room.

Viitala had only a few minutes to think about how to take the picture.

– Rydman moved some papers in his room and three minutes later the pictures were taken. There was no time to leave what to do. Often in a magazine, the first idea is the best.

Missing women from the pictures selected for this story. There is a natural explanation for it: there are a lot of men in the government again.

– Sometimes it can take weeks to take one woman and fifteen men. Decision -makers are the gender they are. If men or women are emphasized in the pictures, then it is.

“A journalist’s perspective is different”

For Silja Viitala, a photo has always been a stopped reality, really true, no processed or manipulated \”digital\”. Therefore, he is worried about the way young people edit images.

– It’s easy to do a trick: to reduce your nose or new, but after that it is no longer a photo but something else.

For Viitala, the importance of a journalistic image is in its ability to prove and save. Especially as the use of artificial intelligence increases, it is important for him to be on the spot to describe how things happen.

That is why he is also concerned about the messengers and photographers used by different parties. Problems will become if it prevents journalists and journalistic photographers from accessing events.

– Journalists are binding on the journalist’s instructions and professional ethics to work for the public. The communications perspective is different: it is always the payer’s perspective.

Awarded to Viitala, the Patricia Seppälä Foundation’s photo journalism award is € 12,000 and will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. In 2023 it was received by YLE’s photojournalist Benjamin Suomela.