Exhibition „My Story Is My Story Is My Story Is…“

My Story Is My Story Is My Story Is…
Students and alumni of the Photography Department at Pallas University of Applied Sciences.
14.02-14.03.2026
Opening on Friday, February 13 at 5 PM
Gallery Pallas (Riia 11, Tartu)

The exhibition series “My Story Is My Story Is My Story Is…” presents the personal stories of young people mediated through non-traditional family photography, functioning as an attempt to invent possibilities for self-actualisation and to visualise alternative narratives that often remain hidden. The exhibition brings together works previously shown in earlier editions of the series as well as pieces presented for the first time.

Participating artists: Agnes Müürsepp, Andra Rahe, Birgit Kaleva, Greete Altrof, Luisa Greta Vilo, Ksenia Kvitko, Katriin Rätsepp, Katariina Torm, Kaimar Kauri Tamm, Kenter Kalbri, Kirke Kuiv, Lauri Trolla, Sille Riin Rand, Triin Sagen.
Curator: Kaisa Eiche
Exhibition accompanying text: Annika Toots

Within the context of family photography, photography is approached as an action—often spontaneous and unconscious—that both records and shapes complex relationships. A family photograph is not merely a memory but also a staging, frequently attempting to capture “proper” moments while obscuring much of what actually takes place within family life. The visual languages and albums through which we relate to ourselves and to others may contain love, celebration, and the affirmation of relationships and hierarchies, but also dis-comfort, tension, and contradiction.

The exhibition features observations and family narratives by students and alumni of the Photography Department at Pallas University of Applied Sciences. Although most of the participating artists are young, many of their works carry experiences of distance or rupture: leaving home and the trauma and grief associated with starting a new life, growing self-awareness, and shifting or transforming relationship dynamics. Each work is personal, singu-lar, and authentic. Through visual practice and self-reflection, the artists seek ways to make visible what the family album often conceals.

Photography researcher Annika Toots has pointed out that family photographs rarely tell the whole truth. Like memory itself, these images are always partial and subjective. While family albums have traditionally functioned as affirmations of belonging and continuity, in the context of a culture of rupture they begin to resemble riddles—suggesting more than they explain, and reflecting broader social gaps, interrupted lines of inheritance, and silently transmitted points of pain.

Artist and curator tours will take place during the exhibition; details will be announced sepa-rately.

Additional information:
Kaisa Eiche
Photography Department, Pallas University of Applied Sciences
+372 51 055 75
kaisa.eiche@pallasart.ee

Gallery Pallas
galerii@pallasart.ee
+372 734 9954
Tue–Sat 11–18
Riia 11, Tartu
https://www.facebook.com/GaleriiPallas