The black-and-white photographs of Alexander Chekmenev (Ukraine), Rimaldas Vikšraitis (Lithuania), and Miron Zownir (Germany) are both remarkable and disturbing. The radical realism of these three photographers from entirely different worlds – urban, industrial, and rural – threatens our illusion of security by demanding that we engage with their images. What feelings do they arouse in us? Revulsion? Curiosity? Compassion? Indifference? It seems that what stands between us are the limits of what photography can show and the question as to whether to look it in the face or turn away. While the photographers’ images have become historical artifacts, they also remind us that photography is a sustainable collaboration between photographer, camera, subject, and viewer. The act of viewing photographs remains essential to contemporary society, as does the duty to witness and discuss extreme circumstances and the social upheavals of socially marginalized areas.     

Curator: Darius Vaicekauskas