17.4. - 13.5.2012

Exhibition Old Towns of Lithuania presents the works of prominent Lithuanian photographer Romualdas Požerskis created in Kaunas, Klaipėda and Vilnius during the period of 1974–1985. Taking photos of the old towns in the biggest towns of Lithuania the author concentrated on people living in them and not on architecture or urban landscape. R. Požerskis created a series of photographs, which continue the best traditions of humanist Lithuanian School of Photography and at the same time he added to these traditions his own distinctively dramatic and melancholic vision.
    The photography is valuable not only in artistic terms, but also as a visual document. R. Požerskis took photographs of the old towns of Lithuania at the time they were changing quickly and visibly. Shop windows, cars and clothes or other details of mode of life captured in the photographs now give us a lot of valuable information about the life in the days long past.
    R. Požerskis saw the generalized expression of the basic human experiences in the peculiar signs of the particular period and this is why it seems, that unlike in the glamour cities of today in the old towns there was a place for individuality and humanity. The photography of those times itself seems to be different than works of the contemporary photographers – asserting humanity and at the same time forcing us to miss it as if an unreachable ideal.

Romualdas Požerskis was born in Vilnius on 7 July, 1951. From 1969 till 1975 he studied electrical engineering at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. After graduating he started to work at Photography Art Society of Lithuania. Since 1976 R. Požerskis has been a member of the Lithuanian Photo Art Union. Since 1993 has given lectures on the history and aesthetics of photography at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas. Since 2011 Professor at Vytautas Magnus University Faculty of Arts Department of Contemporary Art, Kaunas.
In 1990 he became the Winner of Lithuanian National Award, the highest prize for cultural achievements in Lithuania. In 2004 R. Požerskis was presented in University of Vienna the prize of Alfred Toepfer, patron of art from Hamburg, for his contribution to the fostering and preservation of Central and Eastern Europe’s cultural heritage.