HELSINKI.- Since the mid-1990s, Tuomo Manninen has photographed groups of people in dozens of cities around the world. Manninen's photographs depict a wide variety of groups: bodybuilders, tax officials, balloon vendors, tram drivers, church choir members, barbers and professors. Group portraits show how we don't always think about the groups to which each of us belongs because we can belong to a group either by choice or by definition.

For Manninen, appreciation of the people being photographed and an active dialogue with them is the starting point for every photograph. The group portrait series was inspired by the artist's desire to create photographs that draw attention to the diverse and often surprising activities that people do in different cities.

Group portraits are both documentary and constructed at the same time. The people portrayed are actually acting in the professions, situations and environments they represent. On the other hand, the group photographed has been chosen by the photographer, who has carefully planned the location and lighting. The gaze of the people photographed, directed at the camera, clearly shows the presence of the photographer - and the viewer - in the work. The result is a type of image that is characteristic of Manninen: a group of people looking at the camera, placed in a natural space by the photographer.

Spanning three decades, the series of photos is embedded with images of the times and of changing social norms and societies. Some professions no longer exist and new ones have emerged. For some groups of people inequality has increased, for others conditions have improved. The images also reveal images of work that often remains invisible.

Tuomo Manninen (b. 1962) made his international breakthrough at the Venice Biennale in 2001. The group portraits of the We series have been shown in more than 100 exhibitions around the world, including the Rencontres d'Arles in 2007. It remains the only Finnish solo exhibition at the prestigious festival. Manninen is a Helsinki-based photographer and photographic artist who has had an extensive and varied career in photography.