Antanas Sutkus - The Lithuanian School of photography

p.giannakis

p.giannakis

Pan Giannakis
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I don't know how many of you have come across the work of Antanas Sutkus and the wider Lithuanian school of photography. I consider it to be deeply humanistic with pictures that depict everyday life in an almost poetic way.

I found a page with about 300 of his images, i really enjoyed going through them.

http://www.artnet.com/artists/antanas-sutkus/
 
Yes, as we are from the same country I can witness that in Lithuania he is truly an icon - well known and respected.
 
valdas said:
Yes, as we are from the same country I can witness that in Lithuania he is truly an icon - well known and respected.
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Valdas, are there any other resources/websites with more information and photos from that school of photography that you are aware of?
 
p.giannakis said:
Valdas, are there any other resources/websites with more information and photos from that school of photography that you are aware of?
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You can google some names - it should give you plenty of photos in image search. The names I can recommend to check (based on my personal taste) are Romualdas Rakauskas, Aleksandas Macijauskas, Algimantas Kunčius... In the FSU they were all known to represent so called “Lithuanian school of photography”. There are some articles about this school, but mainly in Lithuanian language, maybe in Russian, so maybe those images can lead you somewhere... As far as I can tell it’s more of a style of photography that was characterized by “warmth and beauty” of simple everyday life during hard times, not anything formal in terms of technique or even philosophy.
 
Yes, very nice photography, I'm so happy that it is in b+w.

This is a great shot, could be by Cartier-Bresson.

Erik.

antanas-sutkus-vilnius.jpg
 
Thank you, Pan. Very inspiring. A good reminder of what photography does so well - capturing and expressing humanity.

John
 
Thanks Pan, so many greats in this world that nobody in the USA has seen. And valdas I'll check your other artists tomorrow. I'm off to bed now, but I'm glad I checked in tonight.
 
I found out about him in a trip to the Baltics back in 2004. How could he not be known, I thought. The truth is we know a lot about photography that came out of countries that dominated the field, principally France before the war and the US after, but precious little outside that. The few recognizable non-English speaking photographers working in the documentary tradition became known almost solely through their association with Magnum.
 
My copy of Antanas Sutkus Planet Lithuania (Steidl) has arrived. I can highly recommend this book. Typical Steidl high quality reproductions, too.
 
In general I feel, eastern European photographers are less well-known and as a result undervalued, both here and on the web in general.

Pan, why not start a thread on these photographers on RFF? I’d do it myself but it’s hardly my place, coming from the Netherlands...
 
My mother's family (nee Gustitus) came to America from Lithuania in the late 1800's.
I bought a book of Antanas Sutkus work years ago to see "the old country" I'll likely never visit.

Chris
 
Thanks for sharing. Beautiful work that could easily pass for Magnum or work of that ilk, espescially like Marc Riboud, or George Roger or even Vintage Bert Hardy.
 
In general I feel, eastern European photographers are less well-known and as a result undervalued
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Sure, especially the ones that prior to the early 90s had to work within 'the system' and may have been compromised by 'the system'. Cheers, OtL
 
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