Exhibition about kick-of and end of photography by Roman Drits

On Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 5.00 PM 17.00 F Galerija (Aušros g. 6, Kaunas, Lithuania) welcomes to the opening of exhibition by a recipient of a Special Mention of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2010 portfolio review competition, Roman DRITS (Latvia-Germany). The exhibition presents Roman DRITS' work "Auftakt", presented at the competition and a part of a new body of work, "Web Cam Portraits".

The opening of this exhibition is followed by the call for photographers to sublet works for pre-selection for KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2011 portfolio competition, that will take place during Kaunas Photo festival 2011 and will gather 60 selected photographers to meet 20 international experts of photography.

F Galerija is open daily from 9.00 to 19.00. Roman DRITS' exhibition will be on display until May 24.

Žaliakalnis funicular upper station hosting the F Galerija - a gallery for unconventional photography, welcomes to the exhibition of Roman DRITS, young Latvian photographer living in Germany. Last year Roman DRITS participated in KAUNAS PHOTO STAR portfolio competition and was discovered as a young talent, awarder a Special Mention.

A series by Roman DRITS, called AUFTAKT, submitted for the portfolio reviews preselection last year, is both an easy and at the same time complex feed for our eyes and minds. The easy part is its conventional, Tri-X type black and white photography. The complexity begins when it comes to describing the subject of the photographs. From the first glance, we face simple unrelated images: an airplane, a passer by on the street, a girl with her hair wrapped up in a towel and looking throught the window, etc.

Roman DRITS, living between Latvia and Germany, is different from most of photographers of his generation by its lifestyle and the way he takes pictures. Instead of using his camera to polish the fashionalble subjects of glamour and erosion of pop culture, photographer aims his lens towards the emotional spheres of his private life which breathe with memories, moods, austerity, loneliness, uncertainty, love and the loved. Instead of following the way of perfection, the photographer admits the imperfection of life, which reduces the weight of the materiality of surroundings. Terms of movement or action, photographs of DRITS are in a way beginnings and ends of something on the moment the shutter release is pressed. Deep black tones, arge grain, vignetting, motion blur or sinply blur in the AUFTAKT images bring this work in parallel to those of the classics of the 20th century emotional photography, such as French Bernard PLOSSU or Italian Paolo Pelegrin, to whom places, objects, atmospheres were those imperatives producing a variety of moods to their subjects and viewers - from fear to extasy.

The newest series of Roman DRITS, "Webcam Portraits" is one more instance of photographer's disregard to the traditional quest of quality of contrmporary digital photography. Here, black tones, blur and mystery has again an important part to play. However, the place of grain here is taken by the pixles of the screen, that become an increasingly important part of construction of our daily lives. The pixels not only erase the analogical authenticity of persons photographed, but also leave some space of interpretations of moods to errors and imperfections of the digital flow. "Webcam Portraits" is a series which questions if the Internet based digital technologies are putting the end to traditional photography, or if they are opening new vistas for the image art.

Roman DRITS was born in 1986 in Riga, Latvia, where he grew up. Now he lives in Hamburg, Germany, time after time returning to Latvia.

F Galerija – is an independent gallery of photography, operating on the upper station of Kaunas Žaliakalnis funicular from autumn of 2004 by VšĮ „Šviesos raštas“ and the owners of the funicular, UAB „Kauno liftai“.

Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, curator
+370 650 77895, info@light.lt
www.kaunasphoto.info