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When I first read the brief for this assignment - I thought it’s quite difficult as none of my friends were involved in any kind of subcultural activities. But there were quite some who lead a "different" way of life. Those are young Latvian people (mainly in their late twenties) who don't have a certain profession or occupation. I never knew were they got the money for living, traveling and all those cool things they have. If you'll ask them what they do for a living, usually they would answer something like "nothing special"...In fact it's obviously a slight joke as they do too many things to name one of them. They are photographers, artists, film directors, scenographers, catering persons, carpenters, etc. Well, basically everything that doesn't involve 9-5 jobs. They can sacrifice some level of comfort to obtain this freedom and they use their creativity as a survival kit even in these hard times.
Recently discussing about the situation of art in Soviet years, one of artists mentioned: well, than we had this iron wall, now we have another one - the golden wall. I believe that people in this project represent the tendency in the society that is way too tired from the system built on the principles of consumerism. Workshop 'Developing and producing editorial projects'
Michael Regnier about this assignment It's a very interesting shoot you did and I like your introduction as well since this really answered some of the questions we wanted you to look at like how are these young people different from young people in other countries? What influences in their society and surrounding are they reacting to, etc? The comment about the artist discussing the situation of art in Soviet years is very interesting and you have certainly shown people here in their environments, trying to come to terms with and live in a world where they feel disengaged and distant from the consumerism which is all around us and which is now declining due to the financial crisis at the moment. I think the less "posed" portraits you did work better to show people comfortable in their chosen "non-consumerist" environment than the ones where people are posing for the camera.
Iveta Vaivode about this assignment Usually with projects were portraiture is involved I try to shoot in a dead pan manner. By doing this I try to follow the "less is more" principle which assumes that - if you have the subject which is strong enough (no matter if it's a person or situation) you don't need any additional photographic elements to make this subject look even more interesting. At the same time I also like images that are a bit unusual in terms of poses or gestures. The ones that involves some kind of mystery. |
 Iveta Vaivode
I grew up in Riga, Latvia where I first started to use my camera both as a passion and as a tool to earn for a living. Since 2003 my work has been regularly featured in the main Latvian lifestyle and fashion magazines. Mainly focusing on fashion and ...
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