Esko Männikkö was born in 1959 in Pudasjärvi in the northern part of Finland. He lives and works in Oulu.

Solo exhibitions include Gothenburg Art Museum (2016); Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute, Oslo (2004); Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg (1999); Malmö Art Gallery (1997); Portikus, Frankfurt/Main; De Pont, Tilburg, and Lenbachhaus, Munich (all 1996). In 2008 he was awarded the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. The same year he presented Cocktails 1990-2007 at Millesgården in Stockholm, Kulturens Hus in Luleå and Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall in Arendal.

Männikkö has participated in many international exhibitions and venues, including Dix and the Present, Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2023), Navigating North, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2022), Notions of Home, Yancy Rickardson, New York (2017), the travelling exhibition Investigations of a dog, organized by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (2009-2011), Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn (2009); Crac Alsace (2007), Kunstmuseum Bonn (2006), SEEhistory. Der private Blick Kunsthalle zu Kiel (2005), Venice Biennale (2005), Liverpool Biennial (2004), Shanghai Art Museum (2003), Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2002), Yokohama Museum of Art (2000), São Paulo Biennale (1998) and Johannesburg Biennale (1997).

His work is represented, in the collections of Fondation Cartier, Paris, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Helsinki Pori Art Museum, Oslo Museum of Contemporary Art, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Malmö Art Museum, Stockholm Konst, among others. Männikkö has had numerous solo exhibitions at Galerie Nordenhake in Stockholm and Berlin.