Irena Giedraitienė
© Irena Giedraitienė
Photographs Are Not Photographs
Photographs are not just photographs, they are images, encoded fascinations and imaginations. Whether snapshot or constructed, photographs are the result of a series of intentions and decisions. The challenge to the serious reader of this code is to unpack its meanings from various positions. The reading of the image, the text, is grounded in the social historical framework of the reader and the perspective of the image itself (least we forget that the author of the text/image encoded it, or selected it because of its codification). What I mean by the historical geographic moment is a place in time: where the photographer stood and when. For example, an image of a sporting event taking place in Lithuania in 1960 needs to be placed in the social political context of the influence of the Soviet Republic on the participants and the restrictions imposed by the Soviet rule on photographers to have an understanding of the event. The reader who sees the image from an historical perspective brings to the reading process a broader and maybe deeper reading of the image because of her moment in history. This is true with the reading of any image or recording. What it meant then and what it means now are obvious considerations in any analysis, but are important ones. To see the image as it was “meant” requires the reader to place the experience of reading in the context of that moment, while moving aside from the ideological position of the “now”. In other words the reader has to recognize their historical and cultural bias while trying to “wear the shoes” of those recording and recorded – to reproduce the intentions of the author.
To complicate this further, the technological bias of recording process needs to be considered. Seeing images from 1895, 1960, or 2017 requires knowledge of, in this case, the camera and the recording and presentational medium (dry plate, film, pixel, tin, paper, screen). Add to this the understanding or purpose of image making at the moment. Here intentionality is a major point in the production of the resulting image. The participant or the historian will read snapshots and notations without interest differently. This I believe is obvious but an important distinction. As one reads an image the realization that there is a “text” to read, constructed by an author, and meant to read by others and the self. The first reader of any text is by the author her self.
The VASA exhibition, photographs by Irena Giedraitienės, covers a period starting in 1955 chroniclizing life in Lithuania under Soviet times. Her work includes weddings and celebrations, sporting events and parades, portraits and environments, funerals and celebrations, and children. Upon first seeing her work online I was over whelmed with the range of work and subject manner. Upon further investigation into her Facebook and other sites hosting, I recognized a commitment to image making throughout her life that moved further than the mere recording the days events. She made and makes photographs. In looking at her work I reminded myself that my reading or interpretation was the product of western culture and my own history, more precisely I am a product of the United States, second half of the 20 century. What I knew of Eastern European life, and photography, was informed by a western perspective and understanding of life experiences that I could never fully understand. In short, I saw the work through my own filters, my constructed identity, as she did hers. Even though I have been working with image-makers from Eastern Europe, mainly Ukraine, I could intellectualize their work, but never truly understand it or their experiences as photographers. (The reader is pointed to the 4 exhibitions on the Kharkiv School of Photography, especially the video interviews of the group who worked underground in the 1970s and 1980s)
In reviewing Irena’s images I started to develop a sense of the work that functioned not on a literal or reportage level, but an emblematic one building meaning over time. The meaning(s) that emerged for me, as I built and sequenced the exhibition, began to reveal a passionate display that used parades and celebrations to cover up an emotional plea for life. Seen from this perspective the work on display transcends what is depicted to functioning on an intuitive level. Meaning in this sense is fluid and dynamic, taking shape within the spaces between the images and the reader, not resting with one fixed isolated image but with the experience.
© Irena Giedraitienė
© Roberto Muffoletto, 2017
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