Ålands fotografiska museum

Museum in Pålsböle in Finström with over 16,000 objects showing 170 years of camera and photographic technology.

Opening hoursAdmission €8

About the museum

Ålands fotografiska museum (Åland Photographic Museum) was founded by Olle and Benita Strömberg and opened in the Kastelholm cooperative shop on 9 June 2001. The basis was Olle Strömberg's collection of photographic technology, which he had begun to build up systematically in the early 1960s. The collection comprises cameras, darkroom technology, television technology, and sound and recording equipment.

The museum first moved to the old craft school in Kastelholm and in 2014 to the old school in Pålsböle in Finström municipality, about 20 kilometres north of Mariehamn, where the museum, now over 1,000 square metres in size, is in operation. Stiftelsen Ålands Fotografiska Museum (the Åland Photographic Museum Foundation) was formed in 2020 to continue running the museum.

The collection traces the development of photographic technology from the first photograph in 1830 to today's digital technology. In 2018 the newspaper Dagens Nyheter donated its entire museum collection, and among the objects is Fridtjof Nansen's camera from the Fram expedition. The museum also houses the rebuilt interior of Markström's photo shop in Mariehamn from the 1940s and a period photo studio from 1947.

Highlights

Over 16,000 objects and 170 years of photographic technology
Fridtjof Nansen's camera from the Fram expedition
Collection from Dagens Nyheter (donation 2018)
Markström's photo shop from the 1940s and photo studio from 1947
Darkroom equipment from the 1870s to the present day

Permanent exhibition

Museets samling – Cameras, film cameras and projectors, darkroom equipment, a photo shop from the 1940s and a photo studio from 1947 show the development of photographic technology over 170 years.

Founded: 2001
Operated by: Stiftelsen Ålands Fotografiska Museum sr