Audrias Balčėtis’ photo exhibition “Street Studio” – lives around aqueducts | Culture

In this exhibition, although it is called “Street Studio”, we see the merging of two series. “Water Road” is another well-known series by the author, which he has exhibited in exhibitions and published in publications more than once. This is a series about aqueducts, ancient water supply systems that have criss-crossed civilized countries since the prehistoric times of the Roman or Ottoman Empires.

When photographing aqueducts, the author primarily tries to show their architectural grandeur. It is not uncommon to “use” a human figure to reveal it – then the scale of the preserved structure becomes obvious. Also important to him is the play of light and shadows, the environment and the landscape, after all, the very aesthetics of the image. This exhibition is dominated by street photography without a hint of the waterway. Thus, we see that the author admires not only the archaic engineering solutions of water transportation, but also the life around them.

According to art researcher Tomas Pabedinskas, in the works of the photographer, the picturesque, sometimes exotic environment becomes memorable compositions and the background for the story of everyday life with its small events. The photographer’s vision is sensitive to the part of people’s activities that can be observed in public: in cafes, markets, museums, open house windows, city squares and streets. It is the concept of street photography (in the broadest sense) that most accurately describes the work of A. Balčėtis. The author returns this genre to its classical forms and traditional content, emphasizes the aesthetic impression and the clarity of the narrative conveyed by the decisive moment.

The photographer’s vision is sensitive to the part of people’s activities that can be observed in public: in cafes, markets, museums, open house windows, city squares and streets.

On the other hand, the photographer does not limit himself to aesthetic pursuits, which turns cities into compositions of geometric shapes, and people into anonymous passers-by. Among the works of A. Balčėtis, there are also those in which the photographer captures the people he meets up close, paying attention to their appearance, posture and faces. In some photos, a person even becomes the main and only object of photography. Of course, the characters of these people seem self-memorable, and their faces are expressive.

However, in the work of A. Balčėtis, psychological portraits are exceptional accents, Tomas Pabedinskas further develops the idea. The author more often captures those moments of street life where you can recognize the climax of the story, an unexpected coincidence, and often a humorous observation by the photographer. So it is not surprising that in the author’s works we see scenes that have already become classics of the street photography genre: owners and their animals enjoying human pleasures, pigeons being fed in city squares, elegant townspeople spending time in cafes or “ordinary” people visiting art museums, imperfect looking people surrounded by art and, of course, romantic couples spending time in the city.

The author more often captures those moments of street life where you can recognize the climax of the story, an unexpected coincidence, and often a humorous observation by the photographer.

The photographer’s works open up related but different, complementary perspectives: while traveling, photography allows you to capture what surprises you, what seems unusual; in your country, photography gives you the opportunity to marvel at familiar surroundings and life. So, it can be said that A. Balčėtis’s photography both asks questions and surprises with answers at the same time.

The exhibition will be open until May 25.

Audrius Balčetis was born in 1968. in Panevėžys. in 1998 graduated from Kaunas University of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering, and in 2012 graduated from Moscow State MV Lomonosov University, Faculty of Philosophy, with a master’s degree. The author participates in exhibitions, publishes books. His main creative theme is connected with aqueducts, the history of the waterway and the social transformations around these engineering and architectural formations.