Tuukka Kaila’s (FI/EE, b. 1975) artistic practice spans photography, text, sound and publishing, whilst his work engages questions of abstraction, duration and contextual shifts. Kaila divides his time between a studio and publishing practice in Helsinki, and a professorship of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn. He is also a co-founder of the Rooftop Press publishing initiative, first established in 2016.

Kaila’s works shown at Foto Tallinn are loosely based on a range of common assumptions about photographic representation and global knowledge supply chains. A silk screen work shows a glitchy 3D scan of a meteorite – allegedly originating from a 2018 impact in China’s Yunnan province, listed as Mangui on the Meteoritical Bulletin Database. The event is displayed on a smart phone screen as a .gif, named after the seller’s description of the meteorite on eBay.

Artist is presented by FOKU Gallery

Vika Eksta (LV, b. 1987) is an artist based in Riga, Latvia. Her work focuses on autobiographical narratives and existential subjects, conducting artistic research on Eastern European life and reflecting on questions of historical trauma. Eksta works with a range of creative approaches, spanning photography, analogue photo processing, video, performance, and audio-visual archival research.

At Foto Tallinn, Vika Eksta’s contribution recalls the loss of her aunt – as well as the beginning of her relationship with photography: “Around twelve years ago, my aunt Zoņa passed away. At that time, I had only just started taking photographs, and I was infatuated with the great photographers of the Magnum photo agency – mostly men of French, Jewish and Anglo-Saxon origin. Documenting life and conflict across the world to create new photo series under the aegis of the agency, Magnum photographers arrived at the scene as neutral observers; they studied foreign dramas through their lenses, then caught their planes back to Paris, analysing the collected shots in search of the most successful compositions. I was consumed by the idea that my mission, likewise, was to document life as objectively as possible. Armed with a 35mm camera and a few black-and-white Ilford films, I went to my aunt Zoņa’s funeral – thinking about how Cartier-Bresson might have seen it.”

Artist is presented by ALMA & Gallery

Sigrid Viir (EE, b. 1979) is a Tallinn-based artist who holds both a BA and an MA in Photography from the Estonian Academy of Arts, complemented by further studies in Cultural Theory and Media Arts. Her artistic practice – both individually and as part of the collective Visible Solutions – sits at the intersection of photography, installation, and performance, focusing on the interplay between art and economy.

The images in Viir’s series Time Use of Useless Time can be seen as an abstraction of a 19th century labour movement slogan: “eight hours for what we will.” Developed as part of the Fake Vacationer’s Travel Diary exhibition, Viir’s project examines the blurred boundaries between work and leisure in modern society, urging a reconsideration of how our working day is divided – and how much time we truly retain for ourselves.

Artist is presented by Temnikova & Kasela Gallery

Thordis Wolf (AT, b. 1985) is a photographer and writer based in Vienna, Austria. Working with unedited analogue photography, she captures raw moments that conjure oddity, peculiarity, and a subtle sense of eeriness. Her work is driven by an obsession with the easily overlooked, focusing on fleeting encounters and quiet details. In 2025, she was selected as a FRESH EYES Talent by GUP Magazine, and participated in the Rencontres d’Arles. From September 2026, her work will be exhibited at the Tyrolean State Museums.

Wolf’s Translating Eigengrau is an ongoing analogue photography series that explores the notion of perception from a neurodivergent perspective. Eigengrau refers to a dark grey field perceived by the human eye in the absence of light – a metaphor for the subtle thresholds between visibility, memory, and sensation. At Foto Tallinn, Wolf’s presentation combines three material approaches: traditional fine art prints, translucent prints on silk and organza, as well as images printed on aluminium mesh. These different surfaces form a spectrum between opacity and transparency, creating layered visual fields in which images appear, dissolve, and overlap.

thordiswolf.com

Sarah Stone (UK/BE, b. 1994) received her Master’s degree in photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 2022, winning the Photography Department prize. Her work has been published in theLIST, KAROO, .tiff, Der Greif, Subbacultcha, and Different Class. Stone has self-published three photobooks, whilst her works have been exhibited by platforms such as ONBOARDS Biennale, .tiff at FOMU (Photography Museum Antwerp), and Stieglitz19 Gallery.

Stone’s Pl. du Jeu de Balle project takes its name from one of Europe’s most well-known flea markets, situated in the heart of Brussels – also known as Vossenplein or the Old Market. Her analogue photographs pay close attention to the market’s textures, materials, colours, and its arrangements of objects, zooming in to isolate particular details. When a visitor passes by, stops, or picks up an object to admire, Stone’s composition transitions in new directions.

www.sarahstone.be

Mia Dudek (PL/PT, b. 1989) is a visual artist born in Sosnowiec, Poland. Her artistic practice encompasses photography and installation, exploring the interplay between architecture and intimacy. She holds a BA from London College of Communications and an MA from the Royal College of Art. Currently based in Lisbon, Dudek has exhibited widely across Europe; her work investigates memory, identity, and daily experiences, contemplating how they shape our understanding of space and belonging.

What happens to a house when memory begins to seep into it? Mia Dudek’s Saturation project approaches the house as an organism, examining the moment that structures – architectural, mental and biological – reach a point of excess. “A system reaches a threshold state when it can no longer contain what it has absorbed,” she describes. “Moisture is not only a material condition but a process of slow infiltration, sedimentation and destabilisation that reveals what lies beneath the surface. Saturation does not signal destruction but transformation: a movement through which the repressed seeps back into visibility, like trauma in the body or damp through a wall.”

miadudek.co.uk

Roman Korovin (LV, 1973–2026) was a Latvian photographer and painter, best known for his playful and ironic approach to image-making. He graduated from the Department of Graphic Art at the Art Academy of Latvia in 1997. Throughout his career, Korovin published three books, whilst his work was exhibited across Europe and the USA. Today, his work is found in several major public collections in Latvia, as well as in a range of private collections abroad. In 2025, Korovin was awarded the Purvītis Prize – the most prestigious art award in Latvia – for his solo exhibition Let’s Die Together at the Rothko Museum, Daugavpils. He received the Latvian Annual Photography Award in both 2006 and 2007.

Whether portraying ordinary objects or everyday scenes, Korovin’s photographs are characterised by precise observation, visual paradoxes, and a subtle sense of humour. His series are conceived to be witty and anecdotal: presented as diptychs or triptychs, his images take on new meaning as they interact with one another. At Foto Tallinn 2026, MAKSLA XO presents a selection of previously unseen works from two of Korovin’s series: Garden Close to the Sea and Paradise Garden.

Artist is presented by Maksla XO Gallery

Saskia Reis (DE) is a visual artist and cultural journalist based between Berlin and Bavaria, Germany. Her papercut photo collages examine human complexity and the multidimensionality of character. Reis holds a Master’s degree with distinction from the University of the Arts London. Alongside her artistic practice and interdisciplinary projects, she teaches at Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and mentors students at the University of the Arts London. She is a member of Berlin-based AFF Galerie.

At Foto Tallinn, Reis presents a diverse selection of street scenes from Cairo and Alexandria, as well as a previously unseen series of  portraits of artists and creatives from Egypt – both rendered in her signature papercut photo collage style. Shot during a 2024 fellowship, Reis began reworking her images in 2025; her works are printed on photo paper, hand-cut with a scalpel, then spaced and arranged in object frames, allowing the viewer to discover layers beneath the surface level.

www.saskiareis.com

Tanja Muravskaja (EE, b. 1978) is an Estonian artist whose work focuses on questions of identity, social boundaries, and collective and personal memory. She is a graduate of the Estonian Academy of Arts, where she completed both a BA and an MA in Photography. Muravskaja’s creative approach sheds light on psychological themes, studying internal tensions and notions of belonging – at both the individual and social level.

Presented at Foto Tallinn, Muravskaja’s Gardens project takes conceptual cues from the surface of seawater — an optical membrane where light, time, and distance become legible. Working with reflection and glare, the series posits water as a real material condition, and the print as a surface where perception takes place. Rather than depicting a garden, the images instead construct an environment for looking, foregrounding the photograph as an object: its materiality, scale, and viewing conditions become central to its meaning.

Artist is presented by FOKU Gallery

Roman-Sten Tõnissoo (EE, b. 1989) is an Estonian artist and photographer based in Tallinn. His practice focuses on the quest for spirituality and purpose in contemporary society, whilst his cross-media working methods search for spatial moments of dialogue – with the potential to visualise new perspectives. Tõnissoo holds a BA in Photography and an MA in Contemporary Art from the Estonian Academy of Arts. Additionally, he studied at FAMU: Prague’s Film and Television School of the Academy of the Performing Arts. 

Nekya refers to an ancient Greek ritual which involved summoning the ghosts of the deceased – to be questioned about the future. Tõnissoo’s project takes inspiration from this tradition: his photographs form a journey into the human psyche, depicting unsettling yet transformative moments of liminality – somewhere between creation and violent destruction.

Artist is presented by FOKU Gallery