As summer approaches, Fotografiska Tallinn unveils two strikingly different yet equally compelling exhibitions, transforming the museum’s third floor into a vibrant intersection of artistic perspectives. Opening on May 23rd, the solo exhibitions by Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen and Bruce Gilden invite visitors to navigate two contrasting visual worlds: one steeped in illusion and dreamlike distortion, the other grounded in the raw immediacy of street life.
Danish contemporary photo and video artist Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen — who also holds a medical degree — draws from both science and art to create imagery that distorts reality and stimulates the senses. Her works — visually rich, psychologically layered — are like small-scale experiments that explore how the human body, mind, and world might be reimagined through the eye of the beholder.
Ebbesen’s solo exhibition Kaleidoscope is a dreamlike exploration of the boundary between the real and the imagined. Through the use of mirrors and reflective surfaces — deliberately avoiding AI and digital manipulation — she constructs carefully composed illusions that play with space, light, and perception.
“Since I come from a science field, I also feel that I am on the border between two worlds by standing with one leg rooted in the world of science and the other leg rooted in the world of art,“ says Ebbesen. “I was always fascinated with science in general and I love to play with the ideas of manipulating the physical rules of this world. According to the general theory of relativity you can bend space and time. This is what I try to illustrate in my works by literally bending light rays with mirrors. Mathematical structures, physical laws, botanical plants and so many other things from the natural world are so fascinating that they even seem surreal.“
Ebbesen’s distinct visual language extends into the world of fashion photography, with commissioned work featured in publications like Vanity Fair and Vogue. Both Vogue Italia and Photo Vogue have spotlighted her as a photographer to keep an eye on.
Right beside Kaleidoscope, another world unfolds. American street photography legend Bruce Gilden presents Why These? — an unflinching portrait series that offers a raw, intimate look at individuals from the margins of society. Gilden’s signature style — close, direct, and unapologetically confrontational — brings into focus people and moments often ignored, obscured, or overlooked.
His lens captures subjects many might find unsettling, risky, or outside conventional notions of beauty. Yet his bold, empathetic approach reveals a deep human truth, tracing the contours of joy and grief, desire and despair, vitality and vulnerability.
“A good street picture will smell of the street,“ says Gilden. His ability to connect with those he photographs, often from elusive or misunderstood communities, has made him a defining voice in contemporary photography.
The opening of Why These? marks a historic moment for Fotografiska Tallinn, hosting simultaneous exhibitions by two legendary Magnum Photos members — Bruce Gilden and Elliott Erwitt.
Maarja Loorents, Head of Exhibitions at Fotografiska Tallinn, describes Gilden’s work as an unvarnished confrontation. “There is an urgency in his images — moments captured with extraordinary precision, straight from the street,” she says. “This exhibition doesn’t just ask for attention, it demands it. You can’t walk past it unaffected.”
“Presented alongside Gilden, Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen’s work brings a different kind of intensity — an elegant manipulation of perception that borders on the magical. Together, these two exhibitions offer a rare and thought-provoking encounter with the full range of human experience,” Loorents adds.
Please enter your username and password.
2025 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy Privacy Policy
