“Latgalian people”

Exhibition “Latgalian People” is a very personal project, as the author’s father was from Latgale (one of the four historical and cultural regions of Latvia) and Ilmārs spent there many summers as a child during his childhood. What we know well seems to be ordinary, and we often do not notice the peculiar, unique and fading. He took the initiative to photograph in Latgale from his friend, Danish photographer Stig Stasig, who, while visiting his father’s home, said: “You have to take pictures, soon everything that is original, unique, will not be. We no longer have it in Denmark.” The first pictures of Latgale project were taken in 1989, the latest – in 2018. By evaluating the photo material, it can be concluded that what the Danish colleague said has come true. Most people in photographic stories have moved to lifetime homes, others – to England. Part of the houses and farms no longer exist, instead of small backyard areas, large farmsteads have been established. The photo project by I. Znotiņš is based on a visual story about ordinary, affectionate people of Latgale, about their rhythm of life, where faith in God is important both now and when not everyone dared to visit church. Latgalians did go and still do. Man, God, Work is the foundation of these people, and it is the basis of the visual concept of the project.

The exhibition concept has two storylines. The baseline is images depicting the human life cycle of a relative year (spring, summer, autumn, winter), interwoven with activities and traditions that are relevant and repeated year after year. The other line is small, much more personal stories about people, families, traditions that offer the opportunity to travel over a period of 30 years. For example, a grocery store set up in a van in 1992, 2007 and 2018, weddings in 1997 and 2017, commemorative cemetery rituals etc.

Ilmārs Znotiņš has studied at the Department of Journalism at the University of Latvia, specialized in the Department of Photojournalism at the University of Moscow and has graduated from various international photojournalism courses. In 1991, he was one of the founders of photo news agency A.F.I. and from 1995 to 2006 worked for the newspaper “Diena” as a photo reporter. In 2006, I. Znotiņš started working at “Republika.lv”, where he worked until the magazine closed in 2007. I. Znotiņš is one of the organizers of the photo campaign “One Day in Latvia”. He has participated in many photo exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, has been a photographer and editor of several books, and has received various awards in the field of photography.

WE WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE TO RIGA CITY COUNCIL, DESIGN AGENCY “PIECI EZERI” AND KRĀSU SERVISS LTD.