Her timeless portraits of children and young people reveal the fragility of the moment shared with her subject. Palomäki’s photographs deal with the growth, memory, act of posing and our problematic way of seeing ourselves.
One of the crucial themes in Nelli Palomäki's portraiture is our mortality. She describes: “We fight against our mortality, denying it, yet photographs are there to prove our inescapable destiny. The idea of getting older is heart-rending.” She is a graduate of Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture in Helsinki.
Palomäki’s works have been exhibited in numerous international solo and group exhibitions. Selected solo shows at The Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, Ordrupgaard Art Museum in Copenhagen, Les Rencontres d’Arles (Discovery Award nominee), Kulturhuset in Stockholm and at Turku Art Museum. Her photographs have been shown in several group shows including Helsinki Art Museum, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg, Daegu Photo Biennale in South Korea, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, MACRO Testaccio in Rome, The National Museum of Photography in Copenhagen, Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris and Aperture Gallery in New York. Palomäki’s photography has been featured in several publications such as TIME magazine, British journal of photography, Independent magazine and New York Magazine. Her book Breathing the Same Air was published spring 2013 by Hatje Cantz. Palomäki is represented by Gallery Taik Persons (Berlin), Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (Paris) and Jackson Fine Art (Atlanta).