One of the things I love most about having this side blog is the chance to share some amazing adventures around my city or things that are happening right under peoples noses and need to be shared. Such would be the reason for this particular posting as the other day I received an invitation to the opening party of one Ville Juurikkala. For those who don’t know the name, he is a world renowned photographer who has worked with the likes of HIM, The 69 Eyes and Nightwish. Check out the invite below….

This would be a great chance to enjoy a different side of the artists work and see just how he handles the beautiful landscape of his native country Finland. The show would be held at the Ivana Helsinki NYC Concept Shop located in Nolita and the shop itself is run by Paola Suhonen.

Here’s the street side chalkboard to hopefully attract some additional people to drop on in and enjoy the event. As you can see it’s called “Islander”. The “Islander” pictures are part of a charity project and the profits from the sale of the works will be used to support the preservation of the Baltic Sea. I’ll have a link for you to examine at the end also. Let’s go inside shall we?

I wanted to capture the bright neon lights of the shop name. It was very nice of them to showcase this body of work.

The shops front was being handled by Lily. She was pretty cool and I would speak to her and her husband at some length a little later on in the night.

My plan for this evening would be to share the photographs on display and also some of the fun hanging out time that was had by the people around me. I didn’t get a definition for each shot because I felt that would let you enjoy them on their own.

As my friends and I arrived early it was very easy to get a few candid shots of the main man himself so here is Ville Juurikkala and his lovely fiance Noora.

Let’s add our own Finnish “Ambassador” Samuel to the mix for the next shot. New readers to my work might not know that I call Samuel this based on all his help with the Finnish music scene and culture. For that I am very appreciative.

A quick shot of Ville and I in front of one of the photographs that I liked the most. I must try to remember to turn that victory sign around but at least its not the horns for a change right?

They had some refreshments on hand and while some enjoyed soda, I opted for this awesome Kopparberg cider.  It had some kick to it but was so tasty.

Here are some more of the photographs. Please indulge and let them take you away to a different place.

Here is one of the observances from the shop….there were many things but I did not feature most of them since this was focused on the photography presentation.

Another observance from the Ivana Helsinki shop

The shop also had this awesome hanging chair. It was cool as hell but not easy to get out of after a couple of ciders that is for sure.

Scattered around the shop were bowls of this tasty licorice.  I’m not the biggest fan of the stuff but will admit that I liked this particular kind.  There is always a first time eh?  They had the black and a blueberry kind.  I leaned to the blue.

Let’s get to some more of the photographs. Some really beautiful images here and a great way to see a different part of his creative mind. It was inspiring for sure.

Next up a couple of new friends and one that I have had for a little over a year now. That’s Paivi (left), Cherie (middle) and Annika (right).

Of course more photographs. Some of my favorites are in this batch.

Here we find some of Ville’s friends. Very nice people and I enjoyed talking to them for a few minutes.

These two disco balls were hanging and spinning above us. They were very retro so I just had to photograph them.

Here’s the owner of the Ivana Helsinki shop and Ville.

Here’s Ville and a Finnish guitarist named Kai.

Here’s a solo shot of Ville in front of one of his beautiful images

Ville relaxes in this very interesting chair that was in the shop.  I had some fun with this based on its design.

The show will run from tonight 11/30/2012 to 12/21/12 and is free to anyone who wants to see what it is all about. Ville will only be here for a few days based on his schedule and the fact that he has a few important shoots to do during the month back home.

PS: If you go please mention that you heard about them from us since its always good for the blog. Also I promised Ville that I would showcase one of his newest Nightwish photos so here is one of the gallery that you can enjoy on Nightwish’s own site. Really great image and features the band and Floor and Troy as well. I hope they just hire Floor for the singer’s role at this point.

Official Website: http://ville.juurikkala.fi/
Official Website: http://www.ivanahelsinki.com
Official Website: http://www.kehrainterior.fi/islander