Erica Nyholm (Helsinki, born in 1987) is a Finnish photographer. In 2012 she was one of the young artists reported to Paris Photo by Christian Caujolle for the Young Talents section.
You use photography with a great sense of direction and pictorial composition, in the wake of the portraiture tradition that has its roots in the dawn of art history. She portrays herself or her family and friends, recreating powerful contemporary family portraits. Erica talks to us about social traditions and belonging to a group. In her stories, she concentrates a strong presence of characters with a (presumed) baggage of parental ties that every family carries with it, especially in the inter-generational relationship between women. In a suspended time, he shows us a private album that manages to recreate intimate atmospheres that we all know well and of which we become involuntary witnesses and actors thanks to the effect of the “estrangement effect”, a theatrical technique of direct involvement of the public, to make it more critical, defined by Bertold Brecht, breaking through what in jargon is called the fourth wall, the imaginary division between actors and spectators. But at the same time, in Erica Nyholm’s works there is a sense of the familiar, like when one arrives, expected, late for an appointment. Almost those of her own characters were waiting for us for the showdown. Each of us thus somehow becomes part of these somewhat disturbing stories, albeit in the highly controlled aesthetics, in the role of friends, children, relatives or parents. Judges or accomplices. Each with its own weight of memories, ties, affections and, sometimes, pains. Each with their own script to recite. It goes on stage.
