The Opening of Gvido Kajons’ Exhibition

September 24, 2013

From 3 October, Gvido Kajons’ exhibition will be on view at the Latvian Museum of Photography, which has been organised with co-financing obtained from the ABLV Charitable Foundation’s grant competition for “Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Events”.

These black and white photographs were taken during the era of Soviet Latvia and the title of the exhibition is also a witty reference to the trait, characteristic of this epoch, to use numbers in names. Kajons explains that his creative output is divided into a “human period” and a “non-human stage”, during which “Theme 011” evolved, which incorporates a satirical characterisation of the Socialist environment. This is manifested in form of documentary shots in which humans are the element that makes up the urban environment. Symbols typical of era of Socialism, ideological signs, marches and rituals and daily life – everything is seemingly recorded by chance, but in truth this attests to the photographer’s characteristic patience and is the outcome of waiting for the “right moment”. Journalist Ērika Šmeļkova once made the following comment about Gvido Kajons: “His photographic technique is perfect to the point of idiocy and creates the feeling that the specific place is seemingly removed from time and lives its life, bypassing man.”
Like his associates from the “A” group of photographers, whose co-founder he is, Gvido Kajons never studied photography academically. Initially, photography captivated him as a hobby. For Gvido Kajons, photography started with a 1930s camera found by his grandfather, when he was already in 5th grade. The photographer graduated from the Radio Equipment and Communications Faculty of the Riga Polytechnic Institute and is a professional engineering specialist. During the 1990s, he worked as a photographer for “Liesma” magazine. Since 1979, Gvido Kajons has participated in photography exhibitions and has organised personal exhibitions of his work both in Latvia and overseas, including at the Walter Phillips Art Gallery in Canada, at the Weserburg Exhibition Hall in Germany and at the Van der Berlage Gallery in Amsterdam. The best known of Kajons’ series of photographs are “Living Life with a Minolta” (1994), “Theme 011” (some of the photographs included in the series are first exhibited in 1988 at the Architects’ House), “National Geography” (1998). The presentation of the book “Theme 011” will also take place during the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

Information source: Diena