Lars Tunbjork: Lettland / Latvia / Latvija

Candid portraits from Latvia, depicting life in the suburbs captured just a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union. This book presents the work Tunbjörk made in Latvia through his numerous visits.

The first time Lars and I visited Latvia was in 1996, just a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union. The meeting with Latvia was shocking, but also exotic. Only 15 miles from Gotland was a neighboring country, it was very similar to ours. The people had the same facial features and the nature might as well have been Swedish. Parts of the countryside were reminiscent of images from Swedens’ 1930s. This, combined with all the imprints and traces of the Soviet Union’s occupation, was a transformative experience.

We visited an abandoned Soviet military facility. It was a surreal and strange experience, as if the place was left completely unplanned, that the people just got up and left. Personal letters, clothes, military equipment were left all over. Suddenly we understood that there were also people living among the remains. Lars later returned with journalist Gunnar Lindstedt.

Today it is a quarter of a century since these pictures were taken and we had no idea then that war, the fear of war, would again become a reality in Europe. Text in Swedish.

Fine copy.