Helsinki – Helsingfors – maalauksia / malningar / paintings –

“Depicting a city is like painting a portrait. The face of Helsinki reflects what we have experienced as a nation, and the styles and fashions that have swept through the capital on their way to the rest of Finland.

I have been depicting the changing face of our capital in brush and pen for over twenty years now. It is from these paintings and graphics that I have put this book together. some of the views will be familiar to Helsinki-ites as postcards; others were on show in the art exhibition called ‘Vanishing city’. They include records oft he Helsinki that no longer exists.
Helsinki has changed even in this short time. As some powerful new design captivates the viewer, he tends to forget what the place looked like before. Part of the idea behind this book as to remind people of prospects that were part of the old Helsinki.

The information given with the pictures has been compiled from reference works, the City archives and the owners of the properties concerned. The maps on page 126 will help readers to ‘place’ the location. The coloured letter and the numerical code on the edge of the picture is a map reference. Kimmo Palikko”