He earned his MA in social sciences at University of Tampere, in Finland. From 1981 to 1993, he wrote as a journalist at the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, and then he became a photo editor at that same paper from 1993 to 2001, eventually becoming a photographer in 2001.
He is the recipient of two World Press Photo awards, in 1993 and 2002, and he was awarded Press Photographer of the Year in Finland in 2003 and 2015.
