HBL donates old press photos to the Press Photo Archive JOKA
KSF Media has donated Hufvudstadsbladet's historical collection of press photos to the Finnish Heritage Agency's Press Photo Archive JOKA. The collection contains 2.5 million press photos, including more than 30,000 photographic plates. The donation also includes the old photo archives of the Östnyland newspaper, published in Porvoo, and those of the Västra Nyland newspaper, published in Tammisaari.
Hufvudstadsbladet (HBL) is Finland's largest newspaper in Swedish. Its photo archive contains images from the 1920s to the year 2000: Finnish-Swedish culture, politics, influencers, art, theatre, popular culture and sports.
HBL's first photographer was Hugo Sundström. He was a photographer for HBL and Nya Pressen, an evening paper, from 1928 until his death in 1973.
For six decades, Sundström took his camera to where the action was. In the 1920s, Sundström was on a boat running alcohol to Finland. In 1930, he took photos of the German airship Graf Zeppelin over Helsinki, and, in 1944, he documented the devastation caused by Russian air raids. In 1952, Sundström captured Emil Zatopek's victory in the men's 10,000 metre run at the Helsinki 1952 Summer Olympics Games, and, in 1962, the Soviet cosmonaut Juri Gagarin. In 1970, he participated in a demonstration against the Persian Shah.
Other photographers for Hufvudstadsbladet included Caj Bremer, Max Paetau, Bert Carpelan, Hans Paul, Leif Weckström, Evy Nickström, Tor Wennström and Vidar Lindqvist.
In 2021 and 2022, the Press Photo Archive JOKA will transfer the HBL’s photo collection to the Finnish Heritage Agency’s Collection and Conservative Centre, clarifying the collection structure and restoring and digitising 2,000 negatives. The photos will have captions in Swedish, Finnish and English and published in Finna, a joint service of museums, archives and libraries, at museovirasto.finna.fi/joka. The aim is to make Finnish-Swedish culture and history available to everyone.
Konstsamfundet has granted a grant of EUR 130,000 for the project.
The customer service of the HBL’s photo collection at the Press Photo Archive JOKA will be launched in May 2022.
The Press Photo Archive JOKA stores, digitises and publishes the collections of key press photographers for newspapers and magazines. JOKA also takes care of storing the history of Finnish photojournalism. Founded in 2014, JOKA was included in the Finnish Heritage Agency’s Picture Collections.
KSF Media is Finland's leading Swedish-speaking media company, publishing the largest Swedish-speaking newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet in Finland, as well as two local newspapers, Östnyland and Västra Nyland. In addition, the company publishes the newsletter HBL Junior for children. KSF Media is owned by Föreningen Konstsamfundet r.f.
Further information
Press photos at he Finnish Heritage Agency’s Picture Collections
Finnish Heritage Agency's Picture Collections: Ismo Malinen, Senior Curator, tel. +358 295 33 6382, ismo.malinen@museovirasto.fi
Press Photo Archive JOKA: Inkamaija Iitiä, Curator, tel. +358 295 33 6125, inkamaija.iitia@museovirasto.fi
KSF Media: managing editor Gunilla Celvin, tel. +358 405 938 090, gunilla.celvin@ksfmedia.fi
Links
The press photos of the Press Photo Archive JOKA in Finna