A photo book created in Latvia called “Stikla Strenči” has been highly praised at two international photo-book festivals. “Stikla Strenči” has reached the top ten, but the possible victory is still ahead, because in November the winners of both festivals will be named.
A serious man with a bird and a hare is the first to be seen in “Stikla Strenči”.
“There was a theater, there were several pubs, industry was developing, the city was growing rapidly,” says Vladimir Svetlov, a photographer and co-creator of the book “Stikla Strenču”, that the pictures were taken in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a time when the rafting town of Strenči developed rapidly.
“Extreme optimism, the belief that now we are building a new nation and everything is happening, and this spirit of optimism is also felt in the pictures,” says Svetlow.
The photographs selected by Vladimir’s colleague Anna Volkova were kept in the attic of Dāvis Spunde’s former photo studio in Strenči for a long time. In 2004 alone, all 13,000 images went to the Latvian Museum of Photography. The book is called “Stikla Strenči” because the unique collection has survived on glass negatives.
“The image carrier itself is glass plates.” At the end of the book, we photographed one plate so that we can understand what it looks like, “says Svetlow.
“Stikla Strenču” photo book has been praised by experts at two festivals.
“There are not many photo-book competitions,” Vladimir points out that both photo-book competitions take place in France, one in Paris and the other in the small southern town of Arle. At both festivals, competing with several thousand other books, “Stikla Strenči” has already reached the final ten.
“Getting to the top ten is already quite important, because each of these books is at a fairly high level,” says the book’s co-creator.
We will find out whether “Stikla Strenči” will also win the main prize at one of the festivals in November, when the jury will name the winners. Meanwhile, funds for the second litter are being collected for the Strenči photo-book, because the books of the first litter have been redeemed for several months.
– .
