Irena Giedraitienė started photographing her surroundings and family in 1955 and in 1956, I. Giedraitienė created her first series “Spartakiad of the Peoples”. Although she travelled to the event in Moscow as a participant, when she fell ill she decided to photograph the event. It can be said that her first series already marked the beginning of a line of work that continues to be intertwined of personal experiences, artistic and representational photography. The author’s photographs, which cover various themes, tell us about official Soviet-era events, about work and its environment, but also about the non-facade side of life – daily life, personal celebrations, family experiences and the memory of the Holocaust.
For a long time, Giedraitienė’s extensive creative legacy was relegated to the margins, when the most visibility was attracted by established Lithuanian photographers who had devoted their time to their photographic careers. Irena’s professional career, meanwhile, encompassed architecture, design and photography. Irena’s versatile talents are evident in the photographs of the Pagiriai greenhouse complex, engineered by Irena herself. According to the artist, only a narrow part of her archive has been presented to the public, and you are invited you to discover a broader view of her work in the latest exhibition of Giedraitienė’s work.
I. Giedraitienė was born in 1935 in Panevėžys. From 1954 to 1959 she studied at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute and later worked for more than three decades at the Kaunas Engineering Institute Žemprojektas. One of Giedraitienė’s most important achievements was winning the World Press Photo Golden Eye Award in 1975. The photographer has participated in more than 50 solo and more than 40 group exhibitions in Lithuania and more than 90 exhibitions abroad (or outside the former Lithuanian SSR). In 2014, she was awarded the status of Honorary Member of the Lithuanian Photographers Association.
Exhibition is supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture and Kaunas City Municipality.