Jaakko Heikkila photographs people with warmth and empathy. He has long been interested in minorities and various small communities, which he has photographed e.g. in the Torne river valley, Russia, Harlem of New York and Serbia. He has held private and group exhibits in most European countries and in the United States, e.g. in the Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst in Aachen in 2008, in the Venice Biennale of 2005, and in the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin in 2004. He won the Hanau city art competition in 2002 and received the state award for photography in 2007.