Free Weekly Photography Contest | Photographer of the Week 05, 2026

From January 26, 2026, to February 01, 2026

Photographer of the Week | Photographer of the Week

Finland

Independence Day from series Fault Lines © Antti Yrjönen

Behind the Shot: Independence Day

A hooded demonstrator climbs onto a street sign in Töölö, an inner-city district of Helsinki, during the Helsinki Without Nazis counter-demonstration on Finland’s Independence Day, 6 December 2025. The anti-fascist march is organised in opposition to far-right Independence Day events, including a torchlit procession that departs from Töölöntori, a nearby square.

In recent years Töölö has become a symbolic pressure point on Independence Day: a usually quiet neighbourhood where two competing ideas repeatedly occupy the same streets, separated by police cordons and a few metres of winter darkness. Rain and flash flatten the scene into something half-theatre, half-document: a body clinging to a sign that simply states where we are.

The photograph is part of an ongoing body of work on political ritual and public space in Finland: how demonstrations choreograph visibility, and how symbols are claimed.

Expert Juror

Sandrine Hermand-Grisel

Photographer, Founder & Editor All About Photo

www.hermandgrisel.com | @allaboutphotocom

Sandrine Hermand-Grisel is a photographer, curator, and editor of All About Photo, an international platform dedicated to supporting photographers worldwide. Born in Paris, France, and raised between Paris and London, she moved to the United States in 2006, where she further developed her connection to the global photography community.

In 2013, she co-founded All About Photo with her husband, creating a space designed to give photographers greater visibility and exposure. More than a cultural guide, the platform has become a trusted resource for photographers and photography enthusiasts alike, featuring curated exhibitions, competitions, and editorial content.

A central part of the platform is the All About Photo Awards, which she has helped shape over the years in collaboration with renowned photographers and curators such as Liu Bolin, Ann Jastrab, Ed Kashi, Eli Klein, Jules Maeght, Aline Smithson, Ami Vitale, Stephen Vanfleteren, Sabine Weiss, Frank Horvat, Elizabeth Avedon, Laurent Baheux, Ian Berry, Claudine Doury, Denis Dailleux, Hiroshi Watanabe and many others. She has also served as a juror and curator for numerous international galleries and organizations.

Her own photographic work has been published in books and magazines and exhibited in galleries and museums internationally.

Today, while continuing her personal work, she focuses primarily on discovering and promoting emerging and established photographers through All About Photo. She is also the editor-in-chief of AAP Magazine, a publication dedicated exclusively to showcasing outstanding photographic portfolios.