The “journalist-creator” award was given to Virgilij Juodakis | Culture

This award was established by the National Association of Creative Journalists this year to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Reclaim the Press, Reclaim the Language and Reclaim the Book Day and will be given to only one journalist each year.

The winner of the award is announced on April 15, which is declared the Day of Culture by the Seimas. By the way, the Italian painter, architect, scientist and poet Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, so UNESCO has declared April 15 as World Art Day.

Virgilij Juodakis will be awarded at the end of the year, at a solemn event of the Association of Lithuanian Artists, during which it is planned to present awards from many state-recognized artists’ organizations.

The journalism photo lab of Vilnius University opened up the principles of recording the course of events, vision, light perception, framing, patience and respect for creativity to many students of teacher V. Juodakis. The creative atmosphere, democracy, V. Juodakis’ respectful attitude towards students delighted and surprised many journalists of different generations. V. Juodakis did not lose his human values, he remained civil and patriotic, even when he suffered greatly from the Soviet system.

V. Juodakis was born in Šilute in 1934 in the family of a teacher and a policeman. He is a child of exiles, at the age of 11 he fled Komija to Lithuania alone. During his studies at the Vilnius Conservatory (now the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater), he was expelled from the third course of studies.

“According to the political economy lecturer <...> complaint, I was arrested and ended up in the cellars of the KGB. I was convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda under Article 58, which was popular at the time. I ended up in the camps of Mordovia”, V. Juodakis recalls in his biography. It was 1957. V. Juodakis wrote his biography in his characteristic style has submitted publicly.

The artist, photographer, journalist Lilija Valatkienė, who wrote the recommendation for the candidacy of V. Juodakis for the NŽKA award, shared her personal experience with the laureate: “Journalist, creator, loyal to his profession, trained a galaxy of well-known journalists, worked in the press for many years, published many articles and books. I was happy that my thesis “Civil aviation: reportage photo outlines” was supervised by Assoc. V. Juodakis”.