Ronya Hirsma takes photographs where the ordinary becomes the subject of deep investigation. Domestic objects, the simplest gestures, everyday interactions — all are reinterpreted and reimagined through a lens that deconstructs conventions and exposes hidden tensions. With Second Guessing Sentence, her project set to be presented at the Liquida Photo Fest, Hirsma guides us through a space where intimacy and alienation coexist, and where the domestic environment becomes a stage for small visual and emotional paradoxes.

An artist based in Helsinki, Hirsma earned an MFA in Photography from the Valand Academy in Gothenburg. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including Photo Saint-Germain in Paris (2022), Röda Sten Konsthall and NEVVEN in Gothenburg (2024), Studio Tabac in Stockholm (2024), and B-galleria in Turku (2024). In 2025, she will participate in IPE 166 at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Her works are part of the permanent collection at the Hasselblad Center.

Describing how her passion for photography began, Hirsma recalls an early and instinctive bond with images: «I think I’ve always been fascinated by looking at photographs, but I started taking them when I was about 14, after receiving my first camera. Photographing became a way for me to perceive and, at the same time, shape reality». It is precisely this tension between the real and the constructed that fuels her work, where even a common object like a trash bin can be transformed — becoming a photographic representation with its own visual and symbolic logic.

With Second Guessing Sentence, Hirsma dives into the spaces and traces of domestic life. Through the juxtaposition of bodies, functional objects, and seemingly neutral gestures, she explores the emotions and expectations that flow through them. «I was drawn to the simultaneous presence of something familiar — almost so banal it becomes invisible — and something unsettling. I needed to give space to emotionally charged experiences that are difficult to rationalize. The domestic context felt like the ideal setting for this kind of exploration».

Her compositions are deliberately open-ended, leaving room for multiple interpretations. And it is precisely in this margin of ambiguity that her visual inquiry takes shape: «I’m interested in observing how the meaning of actions and situations is constructed, and the contradictions that emerge from them. The space where physical intimacy unfolds is often the same space where tensions or conflicts arise. That overlap both unsettles and fascinates me».

Hirsma’s work is also driven by a deep reflection on the meaning of relationships, memories, and emotions that are hard to decipher. «These are experiences that carry conflicting meanings. They can be painful or confusing, but also full of beauty because of their complexity. What compels me to revisit these themes is the fact that I can never fully understand them. It’s that very incompleteness that nourishes my work».

Through her lens, Ronya Hirsma invites us to reconsider what we take for granted. In an era where daily life is often experienced in a distracted way, her photography becomes a tool for slowing down, analyzing, and deepening — a way to “look twice” and discover, in the quietest details, all the noise of existence.

Ronya Hirsma’s works will be exhibited at the Liquida Photofestival in Turin from May 8 to 11, 2025.