Mortimer Dyster
(b. 1990) is a Finnish photographer, filmmaker and visual artist based in Helsinki.

Mortti Saarnia, working under the artist name Mortimer Dyster, creates work spanning photography, moving image and installation. His practise explores the connection between mainstream culture and personal identity, drawing inspiration from storytelling, queer experience and gender studies.

As an artist, Dyster is theory-driven and deeply engaged with contemporary popular culture. He graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Turku Arts Academy in 2016 and earned and MA (Art and Design) from Aalto University in 2020.

In recent years, Dyster has staged three iterations of his solo exhibition Allerginen karjapaimen (Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki; Art Centre Mältinranta, Tampere; Turku Kunsthalle), and his short films has been screened internationally, including at the ToolBox Gallery (Berlin) and Aqua Art Fair (Miami). He was nominated for the Young Hero Award 2025 by the Jouko Lehtola Foundation and for Best Music Video at the Emma Gala in 2022, and won the Grand Prize at the Finnish Music Video Competition (OMVF) in 2021. His recent work has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Art Promotion Centre Finland. His works are included in the Finnish State Art Collection.

Upcoming projects include the Allerginen karjapaimen photobook (self-published, November 2025) and his solo exhibition Lily of the Night Valley, opening at HAA Gallery in Helsinki in December 2025. In 2026 , Dyster will work on his next grant-funded project, exploring the boundaries of masculinity through the fictional journey of s space traveller, set against the backdrop of cosmology and space politics.

Mortimer Dyster is not active on social media, choosing instead to build his artistic practise outside algorith-driven platforms. He is committed to long-form projects, quiet visibility, and meaningful creative connections.

Mortimer Dyster is the artist name of Mortti Saarnia.