Vapriikki Opens 'Shots from the Ice' Retrospective for Photographer Jukka Rautio

Museum Centre Vapriikki will open a retrospective of veteran hockey photographer Jukka Rautio on October 7, Tamperelainen reports.

The exhibition, titled Shots from the Ice, surveys Rautio’s three-decade career photographing Liiga, World Championships and Olympic hockey. It traces how his images reshaped the look of Finnish sports photography. Rautio began freelance work in 1986 and switched fully to photography in 1991. He installed Finland’s first ceiling-mounted flash system at Hakametsä during the 1993–94 Liiga season. That technical leap raised both the artistic and technical standards of rinkside photography.

Rautio served as an official IIHF photographer at the World Championships from 1998 to 2011. He also covered Olympic hockey in Turin (2006) and Vancouver (2010). His credits include season photography for SM-liiga (2002–2026), trading card shoots (1993–2021) and almost thirty years as the lead photographer for Jääkiekkolehti. Produced in cooperation with the Finnish Ice Hockey Museum, the show runs at Vapriikki through February 7, 2027 and features material from Rautio’s books, including the nine-volume League Shots series.