"Untold Stories", theme of KAUNAS PHOTO 2011

In the background noise of the multitude of images it seems that it is hadly possible to say something important and new about photography.

Especially in Lithuania and especially in the geographic and calendar proximity of the Eurobasket championship. Should photography run after the Lithuanian national sport melt in the ecstasy of its celebration?

Well, it more likely that KAUNAS PHOTO festival will be a refuge for those seeking to explore the refreshing particularities of photography. Its emotional, economical, social, aesthetic insights, collective and personal stories, exhibited, projected and talked about in KAUNAS PHOTO 2011, are most often left behind the scenes of the agenda of mass media and the fakedness of the social media.

Christian Lutz. Tropical Gift, Nigeria.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival this year is committed to pay tribute to the socially-responsible documentary photography, the development is still on-going. During the past decades it has adopted new chapters, new themes and styles and has produced new stars. Since the turn of the centuries, this type of photography in regard to other media, has become similar to the ugly duck, which does not seek beauty, but is unavoidably visible, exhibited, published, discussed, purchased, collected due to its insights, content and originality. The victory of “Interesting” versus beautiful” makes this photography distinctive from the related media practices in the garage of creative industries.

The theme of exhibitions, lectures, projections of the eight KAUNAS PHOTO festival, "Untold Stories" offers an oasis of socially-aware art next to the heating-up celebration of basketball in Lithuania.