I grew up in Tampere, which is a relatively small city in Western Finland. I studied industrial food production in college for three years. Quite soon after graduating I headed off to Genova, Italy, where I stayed for some years working on various jobs at private yachts.

During my stay in Italy, an event called the "G-8 conference" took place in Genova. This was the first moment I became aware of my passion towards photo journalism. The events that unfolded in Genova in mid-July were a real eye-opener and showed me how little it takes to make a huge difference. I feel that it's a calling to become one of those people who keep the public informed, because without journalists, who knows what the world would be like.

In the fall of 2007 I contributed part of my passion by heading overseas for photography amongst the poorest in India. While in India, I got to do photography in Dharavi slum, which is the largest slum in all of Asia. So far this has been one of my greatest experiences involving photography.

I try to arrange my life so that I can combine both, work and overseas photography. This is a good way to make a living whilst still having enough time for photography - though it would be ideal if I could get paid for doing photography - overseas.

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