Ripsu Hongisto-Salmi: Personas

”Balancing within the boundaries of what is proper, sensible, or good taste is not always possible or even necessary. Liberation of some kind is possible, even within four walls, into a reality where wings sprout from peoples backs. Ripsu embarks on a frank parody of the luxury home life performances put out so brusquely and feverishly by reality television and social media.”
– Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger

Ripsu Hongisto-Salmi (b. 1954) is a highly versatile photographer and photographic artist from Helsinki, who also goes by Ripsu. After four years of work, Ripsu is publishing her monograph work entitled Personas.

A great many photographers in history have photographed themselves as subjects. Yet even in a short span of time, Ripsu has created a recognizable personal style in this ubiquitous form. The book Personas contains Ripsu’s self-portraits, taken in her home in Töölö, Helsinki. Core themes in the images are mature womanhood, joie de vivre, colors, luxury, and courageous self-esteem. Roles switch up quickly in Ripsu’s photographs, but they are all equally true and real. The style changes with them: some are like fashion magazine stock photos, others show unadorned everyday normalcy, and many include a liberating self-irony and sense of parody.