Bio

Heidi Gabrielsson focuses on playful visual storytelling with a slightly dark, melancholy Scandinavian flavor. Her method is staged photography, where she builds stories from re-arranged experiences and personal notes from life. Heidi lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. She is a photo-based artist, graphic designer and solopreneur. Heidi graduated as a Visual Artist BA from Tampere Polytechnic, School of Art and Media, and a Graphic Designer BA from Aalto University Helsinki. In her early twenties, she studied media arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, KHM, and Chinese culture at Shenyang Civil Engineering Institute. Heidi has worked over 15 years as a designer with clients and kept photography all along as a side practice, but life took a sudden turn in 2019. Personal experiences made her realize that it’s vital to follow one’s passion. She decided to focus more deeply on visual storytelling, experimental image making and conceptual portraiture.

Being a mother of two children in wayward times has shaped her view of the good life. The acceptance of incompleteness and uncertainty that motherhood brings with it—as well as the responsibility and possibility to support, listen and understand others—all influence the themes of her work. She frequently makes images with children and youth, wanting them to see themselves with new eyes and participate in something invigorating. Heidi builds elements by hand to add a whimsical and authentic layer to her conceptual work. Her central themes are growth, change, and acknowledgment of the unknown. The endless transformations we go through in life influence her and the fragility and strength that coexist in one person. She explores that mysterious zone where reality and fiction collide. By doing so, she wants to create a peculiar yet multidimensional world where her goal is to reveal our hidden strength and wisdom.

Personal, fine art and photography work at heidigabrielsson.com

Graphic design and client work will be at sorea.fi