'VILNIUS' by Kestutis Stoskus: A Review

'VILNIUS' by Kestutis Stoskus: A Review

We recently visited Kestutis Stoskus' 'VILNIUS' exhibition in the Gallery of Photography, Temple Bar, Dublin.

The exhibition focuses on largely on the city of Vilnius itself - its architectural beauty, it's peaceful surroundings, its winding streets. Stoskus tends not to include people in his photography, which gave me a rather chilling and lifeless impression of what seems like an aesthetically gorgeous city. I personally prefer an element of human life in photography, in the sense that - to me anyway - it better portrays the emotions and feelings of every day life. Stoskus believes he can portray these same traits by way of the buildings' architecture - which is fine and he has elicited much success from it - but from a personal point of view, I found the exhibition a little bit depressing and void of life as a result.

The photographs themselves are fine pieces of work, but to me the exhibition as a whole made me feel rather lonely and sad.

Ironically, I had chosen my favourite picture from the gallery before my knowledge of Stoskus' preference to not include people in his photography. The picture that appealed to me most, 'Intersection of Subaciaus and Boksto streets', shows two people scurrying across a street which transects the street on which Stoskus stands, presumably still. I think the rarity in Stoskus' inclusion of the people means the photograph was intended to involve a human interaction of sorts, for he could otherwise have waited a brief moment while they left camera shot. Their running along one street in contrast to the photographer's obviously calm, still demeanour opposite them, to me represents humanity. It shows that while you're doing one thing, somebody else is doing another. We do not work to the same beat. We are all different and lead different lives, living through different trials and tribulations at the same time as each other.

What I took the photograph to represent interested me greatly, which contrasted my feelings towards the gallery as a whole. It was the human element that swayed me towards 'Intersection', and lack thereof that turned me away from other more chillingly lonely photographs.