Celebratory Images of Community in Photography

The motives of the celebration were important in Lithuanian photography during one of the most significant periods of its development. Lithuanian photography of the 1960s and 1970s often showed life as a sequence of meaningful moments, capturing them as a period of time distinguished from monotonous daily life: spring blooming of nature (Romualdas Rakauskas), Sundays (Algimangtas Kunčius), feast days (Romualdas Požerskis), etc.

In the context of this long-standing tradition of depicting the celebration, the interdisciplinary work by Ugnius Gelguda "Žalgiris" will undergo analysis. Basing on the analysis of the selected case, the goal is to answer the following questions: in which ways has the celebration been perpetuated in Lithuanian humanist and contemporary photography? In what ways do images of celebration shape the image of communities and the nation?

The author will intepret Gelguda’s artwork as an archetypal image encompassing rebellion, struggle, victory, celebration, community building, and the formation of a nation’s identity. At the same time, he will show that after reaching the culmination, the tradition of depicting a celebration uniting a community or even a nation intertwines in Gelguda's work with the expression of identity of small communities and subcultures, borrowing its visual language from momentary amateur photography rather than from artistic one.

Tomas Pabedinskas holds the position of associate professor at the Faculty of Arts of Vytautas Magnus University, where he is also head of Department of Contemporary Arts. He teaches photography and visual culture. The author has lectured in higher education institutions in Portugal, France, Estonia, Latvia and Poland. Pabedinskas works as an independent critic of the art of photography, and has published two monographs on contemporary Lithuanian photography.

Ugnius Gelguda, Žalgiris, 2006