Along with a short introductory talk, images from the project will be shown in the Cafe space, and books will be available to see and purchase in the downstairs Bookshop. The event is a social for aimed at collaboration and collective working in photography.

At this critical time, with issues of global health and environmental impact at the forefront, MAP6’s Finland: The Happiness Project explores themes around the United Nation’s World Happiness Report, which has ranked Finland as the most content nation for four years running.

The UN says it’s not money alone that makes a country happy but six key factors: personal income, social support, life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and levels of corruption. Finland scores well on all of these but particularly so on generosity; the nation’s social safety net combined with personal freedom and a good work–life balance gives it the edge.

With this in mind, MAP6 visited Finland to try to understand why its people are so happy. The resulting nine projects with diverse viewpoints questions and presents ideas about how we can live healthier, happier and more positive lives.

The book production of Finland: The Happiness Project was generously supported by the The Finninsh Institute.

The MAP6 photography collective is a group of 10 photographers working together to learn, experiment and make new work about the complex relationship between people and place. Annually, the group travel to a place new to everyone, and over the course of a week, the group work to form a collective, photographic impression of that place through its landscape and people. Each project eventually takes the form of a curated exhibition, series of talks or group publication. Each photographers approach is informed by a need to document and try to understand the complicated nuances that give a specific place its own unique characteristics, and how these characteristics reflect and inform what is happening in the wider world. The primary focus, during each project phase, is the collaborative process that is at the heart of the group. That takes many forms - from working collaboratively in the process of picture making to editing and directing each other’s work. 

MAP6 have also worked with guest photographers, speakers at events, writers, curators and publishers, and we occasionally welcome new members. For the past 10 years the group have experimented with, and deepened their understanding of, what artistic collaboration looks like for them as individuals and the group as a whole. MAP6 have been exhibiting the outcomes of these collaborative ventures throughout the UK and abroad since 2012, most recently at The Helsinki Photo Festival, The Milton Keynes Art Gallery, the Vilnius Photographers Gallery and Colonnade House in Worthing. MAP6 also support the development of emerging or more established photographers, through having guest features on our website and social media channels, Instagram takeovers, workshops and talks.

The MAP6 photography collective has worked on 7 projects together, the most recent of which is Finland: The Happiness Project, which explores themes around the World Happiness Report.