Panoramic Marijampolė in the engineer’s photos

Birutė Kurtinaitienė is a woman with a camera who is always fit, bright and colorful, always in a good mood and always smiling, who can be seen at many events in the city. For many years, she has been recording various city events, celebrations, meetings, and she shares the most beautiful shots of the capital of Suvalki with others in exhibitions, publications and social networks.

Her latest exhibition “Marijampolė in panorama II” opened on Wednesday at the Petros Kriaučiūnas Public Library. Part of B. Kurtinaitienė’s works is also currently exhibited at the Primary Health Care Center on Petro Kriaučiūnas street.

B. Mizaraitė-Kurtinaitienė, who has an engineering diploma, says that she became interested in photography when she was still studying in high school and that she is the third generation photographer in her family. Her grandfather Juozas Mizeras, who lived in the town of Leipalingis, photographed and repaired cameras, and her father Vincas was also interested in photography and had cameras and other equipment.

Birutė did not graduate from special photography studies, but studied a lot on her own, studied special literature, and after some time organized her first photo exhibition. Photography was always around, and the woman engaged in various jobs – for many years she taught mechanics and drawing to students at the then vocational technical school, worked as a personnel manager in a company, and had other activities.

In 2015, B. Kurtinaitienė published her photo album “Marijampolė in panorama”, in which she immortalized this city and its most beautiful corners in panoramic 180-degree photos. She continued to photograph the capital of Suvalkija, so she presented new photos in the exhibition, which extends this theme. Maybe these photos will end up in a new album.

– I look for beauty everywhere, I don’t take unpleasant pictures, I don’t take social photos. I chose panoramic photos because some take photos from the air, drones, others from below, others in a different way, and for me it is precisely the panoramic photos that are the most interesting. Our city has both beauty and colors at different times of the year, so we manage to get good shots.

One evening, when the city’s monuments were colorfully illuminated, I went out to look around with my camera and took some great shots. The most interesting thing is that the television was broadcasting some important basketball match that evening, and none of the city’s photographers captured those images,” said the woman.

B. Kurtinaitienė regularly participates in plein-air exhibitions of photographers and painters, and communicates closely with Kaunas photographers. When the 100th anniversary of the restoration of the Lithuanian state was commemorated and a project was carried out on that occasion in order to immortalize centenary Lithuanian schools in photographs, about a third of the hundred schools were immortalized by a Marijampoli woman. There were also a number of other projects and exhibitions in various cities of the country.

Professional photographers would probably have comments for her about one thing or another in the photos, but those subtleties are often invisible to the ordinary viewer and he will only enjoy the youthful, modern, colorful and beautiful city captured by B. Kurtinaitienė, who claims that she is happy to be able to show what she sees herself. 180 degree angle. Each of us can discover other, ever-new angles of vision, photograph them, capture them, because we all see our hometown in our own way, and perhaps the most important thing is that Marijampolė is a living, working, creating city that is very much loved by all of us.