Glass Strenči

In 1909, Dāvis Spunde began a photography workshop in the Latvian village of Strenči that he and his successors continued through 1950, producing almost 13,000 glass-plate negatives now housed in the Latvian Museum of Photography in Riga. From this archive, editor Anna Volkova and designer Alexey Murashko, members of the creative collective Orbita, have selected almost one hundred images, all taken between 1930 and 1950. Group portraits of families and laborers, picnics and parades, hospitals, farmlands, and newly installed utility poles, immerse the viewer in the evolving rhythms of life before, during, and after the wars. Each image is presented full-bleed, with an occasional gatefold, luminously printed on a velveteen, uncoated paper. “In the accompanying essay, historian Kirill Kobrin describes the glimpses of life in this village as ‘fragile, strange, attractive, painful, and damned,’” notes Lesley Martin, “which perfectly captures the atmosphere evoked in this mesmerizing selection and presentation of archival images.”