Esko Männikkö was born in 1959 in Pudasjärvi in the northern part of Finland. In 1995, he was recognised as the Young Artist of the Year in Finland and in 2008 he was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. A comprehensive solo exhibition will open in 2009 at the Fundación Centro Ordóñez-Falcón de Fotografía-COFF, San Sebastián. He has presented other solo exhibitions at the Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Arenda (2009), the Finsk-Norsk Kulturinstitutt, Oslo (2004), the Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg (1999), the Malmö Konsthall (1997), and Portikus, Frankfurt (1996). He has taken part in numerous international exhibitions including the Liverpool Biennial (2004), the São Paulo Biennial (1998), the Johannesburg Biennial (1997), the Venice Biennale (1995), and shows presented at Art and Public, Paris (2005), the Shanghai Art Museum (2003), the Yokohama Museum of Art (2000).