Joel Karppanen (b. 1993) is a Helsinki-based visual artist, photographer, filmmaker, writer, curator, and editor-in-chief of Taide magazine. He also serves as the artistic director of Oulu Music Video Festival.
Karppanen’s practice explores questions of labour, class, and the ways economic structures, collective memory, and inherited narratives shape lived experience. Working across photography, moving image, archival materials, installation, and writing, he investigates the intersections of personal histories and broader social realities. His work often engages with both urban and rural environments, examining them as socially and politically constructed spaces.
Combining documentary and post-documentary approaches with long-term, research-based processes, Karppanen seeks to make visible the historical, political, and emotional forces that influence how images are produced, interpreted, and experienced. Music frequently plays a significant role in his work, amplifying meaning, atmosphere, and tension.
Karppanen’s first monograph, Finnish Pastoral, was published in 2018. Since then, his work has been exhibited internationally at institutions and festivals including the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, PHotoEspaña, KunstHausWien, Lahti Museum of Visual Arts Malva, and Mänttä Art Festival. His works are held in the collections of the Finnish State Art Commission, the Finnish Museum of Photography, and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, among others.
His films have been screened at international festivals including GoShort – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen and DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival. Karppanen has received several recognitions, including the New Photojournalist Award and the Jouko Lehtola Foundation’s Young Hero Grant. In 2024, he was selected for the AVEK Talent Development Lab Kehittämö, and in 2025, he participated in Nordic Film Lab.
In addition to his artistic practice, Karppanen has worked extensively as a film programmer, jury member, and cultural writer. His essays have been published in Long Play, Helsingin Sanomat, Suomen Kuvalehti, Yle, Ylioppilaslehti, Nuori Voima, and Taide magazine.