© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

Tell us about where you grow up. What kind of place was it? And then photography. How did it all start? What are your memories of your first shots? 

Alnis Stakle (AS): I was born and raised in Livani. It used to be a small industrial town in the middle of Latvia. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the 90s many factories, which used to put bread on the table of almost all townspeople, went bankrupt. It was a very depressive time for Latvia, which remains in popular memory as a period of total chaos in legislation, economy and social environment. The first partly legal enterprises opened up, the life in the town was dictated by racketeers, the gyms were full of young hungry males, and there was no clear idea of what to do. Needless to say, there were no galleries or museums nearby, and, since I grew up in a working class family, art or photography were not considered a normal occupation.

I took up photography at the age of about 14, and, as I have already mentioned above, I could not even imagine that photography could be a person’s livelihood. Surely, there were photographers in town, but those days were still dominated by the powerful Soviet inheritance of amateur photography, which was a strong tradition, there were amateur photographers in almost every family, and the photographs were developed in bathrooms. To this day, I still develop my black-and-white shots in the bathroom. Quoting Larry Clark⎯once the needle goes in, it never comes out. If you look into the photographs of ‘Taxonomy of Fear’, you will find some of my childhood works there. I used my childhood photographs in this photo series.

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Taxonomy of Fear'

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

What about your educational background? Tell us about your role as a teacher as well at Riga Stradins University.

AS: I started with teacher education because, when I went to university in 1996, I actually had no idea what to do with my life. Later I understood that I would like to try something different. Today I would have chosen to study media, communication or anthropology. I capped off my life as a student with a doctoral degree in art pedagogy and wrote my thesis on media literacy in Latvian education. In Riga Stradins University I am the director of two study programs “Multimedia communication” and “Photography”, and I also teach study courses on photography, for instance, photography as communication, creative photography, etc.

What do you think about photography in the era of digital and social networking? How is the language evolving and impacting the daily life of people and communities, in your opinion? Fast interconnections and instant sharing. How this is this affecting the role of visual makers and your own practice? 

AS: The changes are numerous. Although I do not think anything has really changed in principle. There was a lot of amateur photography in the analogue era as well. Digitalisation has certainly changed the accessibility of media, alongside the number of exchanged images and the speed of this exchange. I think that social media kind of ‘put to sleep’ people’s attention, and people have started to consume and share images for which they see no long-term value. I would compare this to eating habits. We worry about the ecological properties and calories of our food, yet in the digital world we consume practically everything that comes our way⎯lamentations of strangers, lunches of our friends and kitties of our friends of friends gain our sympathies in mere seconds, but the algorithms of social media continue to feed us new similar images and product adverts. An endless temptation, a cycle of clicks and pleasures.

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Melancholic Road'

Documentary photography, surely, in some situations has an upper hand over instant sharing. For instance, when some natural catastrophe or terrorist attack happens, or in other such occurrences, the public probably gets notified much sooner and can react more promptly. Yet, it must be noted that in such cases the main threat is presented by the credibility of the information, which is not and cannot be verified. I would not really call myself a documentary photographer, and many things that I have photographed as documentary images have actually been shot on film, so ‘instant sharing’ sometimes occurs only after several months. I use social media, but I do not believe that I have a specific strategy or tactic of gaining some personal benefit from communication therein.

In your works, I see a clear attempt to catch the true nature of places. Your approach though is different and you make an eclectic use of images. How would you introduce yourself as an author or described your personal methodology? Your visual exploration... 

AS: Some of my photographs are very direct. I like to practice traditional photography, irrespective of the fact that I do a lot of visual things that go beyond the definition of traditional photography. In the photographs shot in China, I was an observer from the margins, but these works are not all about China, if at all. I have always believed that in all places where I shoot, I look for my own self-portrait. Probably, it is my method⎯if I can see myself in the landscape, I am able to find a reason to take a photograph and show it to others.

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

Can you introduce us to the series/work 'Wild Flowers by the Rock' that was selected for the catalog Urbanautica Institute Awards 2019?. What are the basic motivations and assumptions of this project? And how this project relates to other works you have developed in China?

AS: I have been on several photo shooting trips to China and I have a vision of publishing two related books that would each have several chapters. Hence, the titles of several photo series are related to these envisaged chapters and are, in effect, the chapter titles of my future book. I have not yet realized the way to put it on my website coherently. I guess it would be better to launch a separate website and build a more articulate narrative there. The initial idea that has fundamentally survived intact has derived from a very corny thought to divide the photographs into those shot in the daytime and at night, and I have kept this as the basic plan. The project is based on a hunt for mundane rituals and very simple happenings in the Chinese landscape that every person could identify with. I image myself as a part of that world and try to picture what I would do if I truly lived there, and this, in effect, is the grounds for my photographic quest. I suppose I would have a kind of job, would have evening walks along the riverside, would have a pint of beer with pals on a picnic, would go fishing, etc. All that is rooted in a kind of self-ironic sentiment about a past that has never actually happened or, equally, about an impossible future.

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

'Wild Flowers by the Rock' also comes as a film. What are the main differences, pros and cons of acting as a director?

AS: My short film has been made in a manner similar to my photographs. It is based on the observation of everyday rituals. It is even hard to call it a film, because actually, it could be a part of a show that includes not only photography but also sound and video. The soundtrack to the film is a recording from Shanghai philharmonic that was also made in the same manner as the photographs⎯by recording the cacophonic rehearsal sounds from the corridors of the philharmonic. I do not think that I am entitled to call myself a director. A director is a person who leads the shooting of a film and works with a bigger or smaller team. I consider myself more of a vagabond with a camera.

I like your statement regarding this series «I do not present a particular event in a specific space and time in the traditional editorial or documentary presentation of the subject. Instead, I search for new methods of capturing the urban experiment —to construct a subjective experience that presents a fresh conceptual evaluation of the urban environment.» Can you develop for us this concept and your attraction for cities?

AS: I think in part I have already answered this question in my previous replies. All in all, my work is a search for the said self-portrait, which, surely, is a rather abstract statement. I am really fond of big cities, but, as opposed to a run-of-the-mill tourist, I am captivated by the suburb where, I believe, we can observe something of the true human nature and trace the patterns of people’s everyday existence in the modern urbanized environment. The outskirts of a big city are at the same time infused with a warm sense of home and shadowed by hopeless solitude and fatality. I do not know how else to characterize that bittersweet feeling that washes over me when I visit the suburb. To my mind, the suburb is the most authentic part of the city. It is also a boring and sometimes dangerous place without its own identity.

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock' 

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock' 

© Alnis Stakle from the series 'Wild Flowers by the Rock'  

You have also been a also curator at Riga Photomonth and a Member of the Visual Arts Council, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia. How about the photographic scene in Latvia, and what about the impact of the projects you have been working on? 

AS: Latvia is a small and poor country, which has a determinative impact on the life of photography and visual art in general. Unfortunately, in Latvia, we do not have any powerful institutions that would have a significant reputation in the world of photography. Year by year, new initiatives do appear, for instance, a gallery ISSP or a publishing house MILDA Books, which all together transform the course of Latvian photography. Yet, these are all private initiatives that do not portray any common tendencies in the country as a whole. I cannot measure the impact of my projects on the environment since, if we speak about my private projects, most of them have never been displayed in Latvia and more likely than not will never be exhibited. There are several reasons for that. First of all, there are few institutions and curators who actually work with photography, and, secondly, the interest of Latvian curators mostly lies in classic black-and-white photography which is stylistically close to the beginning of the previous century or in projects where photography is merely a reference for ideas.

Three books that you recommend in relation to your photography or your interest in general?

AS. ‘KOCHETOV’ by Viktor and Sergey Kochetov; ‘My Birth’ by Carmen Winant, ‘Masahisa Fukase’ published by Editions Xavier Barral. 

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LINKS

Alnis Stakle (website)