Kahilaniemi was born in 1989 in Finland. He earned his BA in Photography from Turku Arts Academy (FI) in 2014 and his MA also in photography from Aalto University, the School of Arts, Design and Architecture (FI) in 2018.

Kahilaniemi is the recipient of the ING Unseen Talent Award (NL, 2018) and the Backlight Price (FI, 2017). He also won the grand prize in Datong International Photography Culture Exhibition in 2019. He’s been finalist in various different open calls and competitions like one of the finalists for the Tokyo International Photography Competition in 2019, finalist in Hyéres Photo Festival 2018 and shortlisted as a Foam Talent and Burn Magazine’s Emerging Photographer’s fund in 2019.

Kahilaniemi has exhibited all over the world like at Denver Art Museum the US, Voies Off Arles, Benaki Museum Athens, Klompching Gallery NYC, Robert Capa Center in Hungary, Fotografisk Center Copenhagen, Tampere Art Museum, Unseen Amsterdam, Noorderlicht Photofestival, Kunsthalle Memmingen, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, the Latvian Museum of Photography, the Finnish Museum of Photography, Kunst Haus Wien and many others. His latest solo exhibitions were at Galleria Halmetoja in Helsinki, 2021 and in Persons Project in Berlin, 2021.

Kahilaniemi’s photoworks has been featured in many publications, including Fisheye Magazine, Das Magazin, Eikon Magazine, Europe Now Journal, Fotografi Norway, GUP magazine, Greenpeace Magazine, Der Greif and HANT Magazine and many others. Kahilaniemi’s recent photography projects 100 Hectares of Understanding, Nature Like Capital and Past-It and his sculpture works are his studies to understand the world around him and how humans affect the nature and environment. Currently Kahilaniemi lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.