“It is not easy to define the creative phenomenon of Antanas Sutkaus, but he himself answered this question best: “the simplest recipe for good photography: you need to love the land and the people you photograph.” I think A. Sutkus was faithful to this provision and it paid off in a big way,” says photography historian Dr. Margarita Matulaitytė. As the exhibition approaches, his colleagues, art critics, and archive staff share their thoughts about A. Sutkaus’s work.
“The most stuck conversations with Antanas are not about photography at all. We don’t really talk about her much. Mostly about life, love, events in the country, concern for Ukraine”, says Artūras Morozovas, creator of documentary photography, who has implemented several projects with A. Sutkus and continues the traditions of Lithuanian humanist photography.
“Apparently, the most significant lesson I get from Antanas is the emerging understanding of the creator’s personality – what it should be, what needs to be developed, how to maintain respect for others, sensitivity to the surrounding environment. Here, I think, lies part of the secret of Antanas’ talent – precisely those life stories, many twists and turns during those eight decades, that endless baggage of experiences. Maybe that’s why A. Sutkus doesn’t look down, doesn’t show off and finds a language with everyone? Here are the plots of the science of phenomenology – who presses that camera button – is it only our eye that decides after seeing a beautiful form, or are we influenced by all those experiences, life lessons and preserved inner sensitivity?” – asks A. Morozov.
According to him, today’s generation and A. Sutkaus’s generation are united by the continued interest in man, his everyday life.
“Antanas and his fellow photographers created a powerful charge back then. I am talking about the phenomenon of the Lithuanian school of photography. It seems to me that the young generation has beautifully adapted, accepted this tradition and continues it in their own way, in today’s language that is close to them. However, that human aspect remains – social phenomena are explored through artistic language, social boundaries are crossed, and today’s cultural diversity is introduced. I want to believe what our generation of classics taught us – to express concern for what is happening today through photography. What my friend Tad Kazakevičius and I present at this festival is also a product of the Lithuanian School of Photography. While creating the series “Sekma diena” together, we went around the regions of Lithuania, where we met people, photographed them and got to know them. The true happiness of photography”, says the photographer who will also present his work at the exhibition.
Exhibition of color photographs – breaking stereotypes about A. Sutkaus’ work
Few people know that A. Sutkus since 1965 started creating his photo stories by photographing onto a wide color slide. The exhibition, which will be open for the whole month, will present 80 color works of the author, unique author’s contact prints, portraits of A. Sutkaus and audio recordings.
“The idea of the organizers of the IPMA festival to organize an exhibition of Antanas Sutkaus’ color photographs is an important event, not only breaking the stereotypes of the photographer’s creative image, but also expanding the understanding of the aesthetic expression developed during the Soviet era,” says Dr. Margarita Matulytė.
Photo by Ugnė Marijas Makauskaitė/Margarita Matulytė
“Sutkaus’ color photography has always been associated with the representation of Soviet Lithuania. At that time, the selective color images in the photographer’s albums and postcards, which were published in large editions, were focused on the pathos and sophisticated presentation of the country. The streak of propagandistic narrative and commercial activity, which has nothing to do with the photographic art developed by the author, has consolidated a limited approach to this area of A. Sutkaus’s work.
The IPMA exhibition carried out a revision of the photographer’s archive, brought out the shots hidden in the margins and showed that color photography was capable of evocatively expressing the aesthetics of everyday life. For the first time, I recognize the author in the photographs exhibited – the motifs, compositions, relationship with the object are second to A. Sutkaus’s black and white work, but they also bring something new – that touch of Western life, which was so lacking in the Soviet era,” says M. Matulytė.
According to the photography historian, the key to understanding the photography of that period is primarily ideological – Antanas Sutkus and other photographers of his generation hit “appear” in the best years of the Soviet era, when Nikita Khrushchev loosened the totalitarian reins a little and Soviet culture “warmed up”.
“Lithuanian photographers had the opportunity to retreat from the total socialist realist falsity and delve into humanistic documentaryism, which became for them an instrument for the realization of a direct relationship with reality. Intellectual, sensitive and, no doubt, talented personalities turned their eyes to the everyday life of an ordinary person, which they included in the stories they created in a rather expressive modern form.
Antanas Sutkus
The creative current of A. Sutkaus and his comrades, called the Lithuanian school of photography, can be metaphorically compared to the march of Julius Caesar, when he “crossed the Rubicon” with his army and expanded the borders and power of the Roman state – at that time, the new expression of Lithuanian photography was not only recognized and followed by the Soviet In the Union, but it was also appreciated behind the “iron wall”, and even today it does not lose its power and relevance. And one of the first strong statements I came, I saw, I conquered after all, there was the photo album “Vilniaus Šiokiadieniai” published in 1965 by Romuald Rakauskas and Antanas Sutkaus, in which, ignoring the hierarchical structures of the Soviet concept, nameless heroes are spoken to in the noise or silence of the city streets”, M. Matulytė recalls the pages of the history of Lithuanian photography.
“I once compared the Lithuanian photographer’s aesthetics with Henri Cartier-Bresson’s basic “decisive moment” tactics. However, I see an obvious difference: if the French photographer obeyed the intuition of the “hunter” and the fragments of the everyday flow perfectly fit into his photography by combinations of incredible coincidences, then A. Sutkus not only created an exceptional compositional scheme, but also captured lingering emotion in insignificant things, because the most important thing for him is not a form, but an existential vibration,” says the photography historian.
A. Sutkaus archive – like a living organism
“The Antanas Sutkaus archive is one of the largest independent, active photography archives in Lithuania. There is a lot of material here – negatives, photographic prints, framed works and books are more than there is room in the archive itself. I have been working here for over four years and until now I have discovered photographs that I have not seen. As a result, knowing the location of each item requires careful and careful work. Although it is not always possible to do this” – eclecticism and chaos are one of the characteristics of the archive, which must be obeyed from time to time”, says Severina Venckutė, photographer and project manager of the Antanas Sutkaus Photo Archive.
“Sometimes it happens that I review and sort one corner of the archive, and when I return to it a week later, I find something there that I haven’t seen. I used to try to explain and rationalize it, but now I just accept the archive as a living organism that is constantly changing. The colored part of the archive was stored in boxes for a long time and after the independence of Lithuania it seems to be forgotten. Maybe because Antanas Sutkus started doing color photography as commissioned photo sessions for Soviet-era photo albums, such as “Neringa”, “Lithuania from a bird’s eye view”, “Song to Lithuania”. These albums had a large circulation throughout the Soviet Union, so we can probably often see them lying on the bookshelves of our grandparents. Of course, Sutkus wouldn’t be Sutkus if he didn’t take more photos than was necessary for the order – in the upcoming “Memories of a Colorful Life” exhibition at the Žilinsk Gallery, we will see what didn’t make it into the albums,” says S. Venckutė.
At the joint IPMA exhibition – over 40 artists from around the world
A total of over 40 artists from around the world are participating in the IPMA festival exhibition, which will be presented to visitors on Tuesday, October 1. Responding to the invitation of the organizers on the theme of “Life stories”, the creators, using various art forms, will immerse themselves in the search for an authentic – sometimes complex, and sometimes slightly ironic – life.
In the main program: photographers and media art creators: Antanas Sutkus, Nina Röder, Karolina Wojtas, Julija Goyd, Mario Wezel, Ivonne Thein, Artūras Morozovas, Tadas Kazakevičius.
The opening of the exhibition will take place on October 1. 6 p.m. M. Žilinskas art gallery, Kaunas. More about the festival and the full program of events: www.ipmafestival.lt.
#festival #Kaunas #neverbeforeexhibited #shots #Sutkaus #Western #touch #lacking #Soviet #era #Culture
2024-10-01 04:51:28
