Sami Perttilä
On the Move – Young Adults in the Transforming Labor Market
Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari – Jätkä 1
11.3. – 26.3.2017
What is everyday life like for someone moving from one temporary job to another? What is one’s life like when work consists of assignments and gigs, entrepreneurship with chair rental and low-paid jobs?
The Ajolähtö project examines young adults from the Kymenlaakso region in the transforming labor market. Combining the methods of photography, journalism and ethnography, the research project sheds light on the life of those who live in Kymenlaakso or who have moved from there to Helsinki.
Each young adult’s story is unique, but what they all have in common is not only uncertainty with regard to employment, but also a strong faith in the future and trust that everything will work out. Changing employment situations provide a framework for everyday life both time-wise and financially. How to separate work from free time? Can one get by on their income? Photographer Sami Perttilä answers these questions by means of photography and a documentary. He has written the texts for the photographs together with journalist Terhi Hautamäki.
The exhibition On the Move – Young Adults in the Transforming Labor Market features photographs of people, work and abandoned business premises. The collection of everyday photos and life stories are accompanied by images of Kymenlaakso’s structural change as well as the changing of seasons. The exhibition shows that in the midst of news that seems hopeless, new possibilities and ways to get by emerge.
Photographer Sami Perttilä’s exhibition is part of the Ajolähtö research project funded by the Kone Foundation under the Is Finland Becoming Polarized? program. A total of 41 young adults have been interviewed between 2015 and 2017 and their lives have also been followed through diaries. Young people have to stay on the move and navigate the labor market that offers more and more people only self-employment and low-paid jobs.
As part of the Ajolähtö project, Sami Perttilä and Terhi Hautamäki’s collaborative articles have been published in Suomen Kuvalehti (2016–2017) and they are freely available online. The project also includes the Ajolähtö blog on the Suomen Kuvalehti website.
Contact person regarding the exhibition:
Sami Perttilä, perttila(a)gmail.com, tel. +358 50 544 7562
Contact persons regarding the Ajolähtö project:
Anu-Hanna Anttila, anantti(a)utu.fi
Päivi Berg, paivi.berg(a)nuoristotutkimus.fi
