The exhibition is a playful, tentative and imaginative exploration into the photographic archive as generator of multiple meanings and plentiful source of inspiration. The works in the Archive Play exhibition are part of Hertta Kiiski’s work Present and Niina Vatanen’s work Archival Studies / A Portrait of an Invisible Woman, which were created as a response to a vernacular photography collection housed at the Finnish Museum of Photography. The 5,000 negatives that make up the original material tell a touching story about a female hobby photographer’s life, with all its joys and sorrows. However, in its ordinariness and everydayness, the photographic material remains almost anonymous and becomes nearly fictional. Kiiski and Vatanen approach the material based on intuition, amazed by its wealth and moved by Helvi Ahonen’s presence.