Reality monitoring and visual poetry in Albinas Kuliešius' works 0

Remigijus Venckus
www.kamane.lt, 2016-03-03
Albinas Kuliešius' photograph

In brief: When I look at the documentary photography, in which I recognize Lithuania that I fully understand and which is stuck in my imagination; similarly seen landscapes and people's daily activities, I get the impression that all of this is that universally cognizable, finite accumulation of Lithuanian experiences. Probably I will not be wrong saying that I notice all that in the photographs of Ukmergė-based A. Kuliešius.

Probably many readers of this text will agree with my observation that A. Kuliešius' work is based on a careful act of observation. It is likely that artist, every day, patiently and tirelessly looks around in any environment that he finds himself in unexpectedly or where he lives, travels, rests or has fun. His journeys are consistent and the captured images end up as coherent and whole series of photographs.

Although, at first glance, geographical latitudes recorded in the photographs, seem very clear and easily predictable to me, A, Kuliešius' works encourage the viewer to move with his thoughts away from the photography as an objective image of the world, towards photography as a mirror instantly verifying and re-aligning the experiences of living reality.

The concept of Lithuanianness, which I use, is no coincidence, because A. Kuliešius is not only a chronicler of life, but also a poet of life. By capturing the natural and urban landscapes, the faces of famous artists and even people's daily rituals, photographer captures the composition, which is decomposing in the flow of everyday life - the fading light, unraveling relationships between subjects and objects.

A. Kuliešius' photography, just like poetry in its nature, introduces people to something that will never be or to things that are overlooked by the simple, untrained and insensitive eyes of the viewer. Only after staring into the photographs for some time I naturally get an idea that image accumulates experience and by employing my memory encourages to participate in the games of decoding the meaning of the works.


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