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

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

Naguel Rivero (AR/FR) is an Argentine visual artist based in Paris, France. Trained in filmmaking at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina, his work spans photography, video art, and installation, exploring socio-political realities between documentary and fiction. Rivero’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as Villa Noailles and Hayward Gallery. Most recently, he was a prize-winner at the 2026 MIA Photo Fair.

At Foto Tallinn, Rivero’s work explores the notion of the ‘emergency ontology,’ referring to the art of improvisation under scarcity. The N.E.P.A. project – which stands for Nada Es Perfecto Aquí – emerged from an experimental laboratory based in Córdoba, Argentina. Employing a hybrid methodology of documentary and semi-fictional staging, Rivero documents the Argentine philosophy of ‘atamos con alambre’ (tying everything with wire), transforming informal urban solutions into spontaneous sculptures. For the artist, this specific visual grammar from Latin America challenges notions of permanence and perfection, as well as resonating with the act of creating in precarious conditions – reframing constraints as valuable tools for reflection.

www.naguelrivero.net

Sauli Sirviö (FI, b. 1980) is a Finnish artist whose favoured working method is based on fieldwork and archiving. The archives he builds include publications, photographs, and an extensive array of found artefacts. Over the past two decades, Sirviö’s research has explored the history of lost locations and spaces, decayed infrastructure, the intersections of digital and analogue worlds, and lost or partially corrupted information. His work places particular emphasis on the interaction of objects and spaces.

The photographic installation Blueprint IX is composed of a series of modules – photographic works – whose visual content derives from repeated visits to a post-industrial landscape over the course of several years of fieldwork. Here, Sirviö’s project places particular focus on abandoned control rooms – once used to operate factory machinery or infrastructure, and to maintain connections with the outside world.

Artist is presented by SIC Gallery

Rūta Kalmuka (LV, b. 1974) began her photography studies in 1992 at Riga’s Technical Creativity House – Annas 2 – under the tutelage of Andrejs Grants. She went on to work in the field of photojournalism for almost 20 years. Today, Kalmuka’s interest lies in historical photographic processes, working primarily with analogue and large-format techniques. In 2025, she was nominated for the prestigious European photography platform, FUTURES.

Exhibited here, Kalmuka’s Dzen series explores themes of purification and release through the lens of ancient spring rituals. Centred on the body and movement as ritual action, the project draws on the Livonian tradition of ‘driving birds’ and ‘calling birds’: where large birds symbolised illness and evil spirits, small birds represented light and awakening. Using analogue large-format photography and butoh-inspired movement, Kalmuka reinterprets ritual as a metaphor for new beginnings.

Artist is presented by ISSP Gallery

Paul Kuimet (EE, b. 1984) is an Estonian artist who works with photography, 16 mm film, and mixed-media installation. The indivisibility of a depicted material and the image’s material support is a recurring motif in his practice, as is the tension between formal qualities and narrative possibilities. In his work, materials – such as the tracing paper used in architectural drawings – operate as both subject matter and as malleable tools for the creation of new forms and spaces.

Kuimet’s Suite is a series of analogue photographic prints depicting close details of architectural plans from an archive belonging to the artist’s mother – architect Tiina Soans. Kuimet’s response to the archive explores the transparency of the paper on which these plans are rendered, inviting the viewer to see through multiple surfaces and spaces, as if seeing through the photographic image itself. Overlaid with abstract colour blocks and gradients to underscore a tension between the layered depth of the image and the material flatness of the photographic object, Kuimet’s works create a sculptural dialogue between two flat surface types. Hand-printed by the artist in the darkroom, the colour gradient overlaying each image is therefore unique.

www.paulkuimet.ee

Rasa Jansone (LV, b. 1973) is a Latvian artist whose practice now spans over two decades. She is known for projects which reinterpret fundamental elements of art history through a feminist lens. Jansone’s works have been exhibited both in Latvia and abroad, and are included in the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Latvian Museum of Photography. In 2024, she earned a practice-based PhD from the Art Academy of Latvia, where she now teaches the history of contemporary art.

At Foto Tallinn, Jansone’s works are drawn from her most recent solo exhibitions at ALMA &: Your Foot on My Hand; Always, Raphael, and Jesus’ Little Sister. Created using her signature technique – combining painting in watercolour and oil with collaged photographic prints – Jansone reworks images from a wide range of sources, from Renaissance painting to glossy lifestyle magazines.

Artist is presented by ALMA & Gallery

Sigrid Viir (EE, b. 1979) is an artist based in Tallinn. She studied photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and furthered her studies in cultural theory and media art. 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