About the exhibition
For 15 years, photographer Nina Varumo has been granted access to document an otherwise closed world: the everyday lives of families within East Laestadian congregations in Tornedalen and Norrbotten. The result is a warm and uniquely personal insight into a contemporary revivalist movement and community that has rarely welcomed outsiders—until now.
Thanks to her uncle Seppo, who found his faith within the movement, Nina Varumo was given permission to portray everything from domestic interiors and prayer meetings to sweeping landscapes and village streets. Viewed against today’s secular society—where the search for deeper meaning often takes very different forms—these images become particularly thought-provoking.
About the photographer Nina Varumo
Nina Varumo (b. 1978) is a freelance photographer based in Stockholm, specialising in portrait and documentary photography. She holds a degree in photojournalism from the Nordic School of Photography.
In her artistic practice, she is drawn to contexts—and to the presence and absence of them. Themes such as relationships, family, identity, and faith recur throughout her work.
Laestadianism in northern Sweden and Finland
Laestadianism has its roots in northern Scandinavia in the 19th century and remains an active part of the Church of Sweden. It has a strong presence in northern Sweden and Finland, yet remains largely invisible to most people.
Laestadianism is named after the priest Lars Levi Laestadius (1800–1861). Within the movement, there is a belief in both an earthly and a heavenly body, and that during one’s limited time on earth, one should live righteously and in the true, living faith. Life is described as a long road lined with trials, in anticipation of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Nordic Museum reflects people’s lives, experiences, and cultural history in Sweden and the Nordic region. Waiting for Kingdom Come sheds light on a movement that has shaped families in Finland, Norrbotten and Tornedalen for generations.
