Mindaugas Ažušilis is a young photographer who’s active in presenting his works internationally. He graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2014 as a master of photography and media arts, and received a status of an artist from the ministry of culture in the same year. He’s a member of the Lithuanian Photographers Association since 2015. Looking at M. Ažušilis’ relatively short biography so far, one could notice his achievements in European and other photography festivals. After his debut in 2012 with the project “Laimė Lietuvoje” that received an exceptional amount of attention, the author keeps on delving into uncomfortable, however definitely relevant topics – masculinity, hedonism, road accidents, and image (dis)ability.
Discussion: Mindaugas Ažušilis and Eglė Deltuvaitė
Mindaugas Ažušilis, Lietuva. 999.9 / Lithuania 999.9. Compiled by Eglė Deltuvaitė, book design by Gytis Skudžinskas. Vilnius: Kultūros meniu, 2017.
Mindaugas Ažušilis, a representative of the younger generation of photo artists, explores the uncomfortable yet critical topics like masculinity, hedonism, road accidents, and image (dis)ability in his book “Lietuva. 999.9 / Lithuania 999.9”. Art researcher Dr Agnė Narušytė notes: “This book shouldn’t be read only as critique on capitalism, consumerism, globalisation, provincialism or nationalism, even though it includes plenty of that. There’s no need to get depressed as well, instead the readers could admire interesting moments that M. Ažušilis noticed in the daily existence of Lithuanians. These kind of moments are there to cover all the flaws of a decaying world”. The book has six series: “Laimė Lietuvoje” [“Happiness in Lithuania”] (2011-2012), “Palanga” (2013-2014), “Vyriškumas” [“Masculinity”] (2013-2014), “Superžvaigždės” [“Superstars”] (2014-2016), “Avarija” [“Crash”] (2014-2016), and “Pomirtinis gyvenimas” [“The afterlife”] (2014-2017).
The book got into the finals for the best photobook competition at the PHotoESPAÑA festival in 2017 – it was the first time that a book published by a Lithuanian publisher was nominated.
