Cinema and Photography

In brief: Prague's Panny Marie Snežné monastery gallery is hosting an exhibition Four Lithuanian photographers from May 17th till June 30th. The works featured in the exhibition come from Antanas Sutkus' photography series Lithuanian people, Aleksandras Macijauskas' series Lithuanian markets, Romualdas Rakauskas' series Blooming and Romualdas Požerskis' photographic narrative about a small village resident Little Alfonsas.

Looking at the photographs presented at the exhibition, it seems that its curator G. Avanesian (perhaps intuitively) followed several obvious criteria: to present the works that had become the icons of Lithuanian photography and choose photographs that have a metaphorical meaning which is easy to read. The poster of the exhibition greets the viewers with a famous A. Sutkus' image of Jean Paul-Sartre in Nida (Jean-Paul Sartre in Lithuania, Nida, 1969) and the exposition features other famous examples of Lithuanian photography school.

These works attract viewers’ attention not only with their artistic quality, but also because of the clear visual metaphors. They are most obvious in the photographs of R. Požerskis, in which Little Alfonsas is captured in the situations premeditated and orchestrated by the photographer. The hero of the photographs, walking on the beach alongside a young girl who was invited to the photo-shoot, certainly emphasizes the contrast between an ideal and happiness as an aspiration and an often imperfect and painful reality.

Lithuanian authors' photographs represent the same humanistic worldview, which at various times, made it possible for people to believe in a universal human nature as an unquestioned value uniting humanity. This idea is embodied in each photograph under different circumstances, in a different moment of life or an orchestrated scene and continues to gain different forms, depending on each Lithuanian author's individual approach and creative style.

On the other hand, the international humanistic photography in Lithuanian authors' works has gained a unique goal, shaped by historical circumstances - to preserve Lithuanian identity and culture. During the Soviet Period, when nine Lithuanian photographers organized an exhibition in Moscow, the topic of national identity had a shade of indirect resistance to the former political situation. Now, such photography represents our country's culture in freedom. However, the photographers' position remains unchanged - they firstly present themselves not as individual artists, but as four Lithuanian artists.

Photographs taken by the author