Milda Drazdauskaitė was an under-represented and little researched Lithuanian photographer who worked in changing historical circumstances at the crossroads between classical humanist photography and conceptual photography. This liminality was both strength and an obstacle for the artist. In 1978 the artist started participating in exhibitions and working in Lithuanian Photographers Association, some of her works traveled to a number of European galleries, even Antanas Sutkus entrusted her with the printing of his photos. M. Drazdauskaitė’s choice to take “photos for the memory” testifies to an auto/ironic and conceptual approach to photography – it is a way to overcome the resistance of models and not emphasize the authorship of the photographer. Milda Drazdauskaitė’s work, like the works of her colleagues Algirdas Šeškus, Alfonsas Budvytis, Vytautas Balčytis, Gintaras Zinkevičius, should be reviewed in the context of contemporary art and photography. The author’s works are characterized by obvious posing, models’ performances of a more beautiful life, highlighting the absurdity of everyday life, the dissonance between what they are and what they want to look like. The exhibition presents a small part of M. Drazdauskaitė’s works, more precisely – two of her favorite characters – ladies and grannies. Next to these female archetypes, Milda’s personal “photos for the memory” also come to life – autobiographical shots from the personal archive – witnesses of a complex and expressive social and historical period.
2022.08.10 – 2022.09.24 / Vilnius Photography Gallery (Stiklių str. 4 / Didžioji str. 19, Vilnius)
Lithuanian Photographers’ Association is supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture.