FESTIVALS (Lithuania, 1957-1959)
Vytautas Stanionis began his career as a photographer in 1946. His first assignment from the Lithuanian authorities was to do identity photos for the newly introduced Soviet passports. After that he worked as a photojournalist for various Lithuanian newspapers and magazines. In the 1950s and ’60s he also published a number of photo books. Stanionis’s photos give a picture of post-war Lithuania. The hope of the interbellum years has been exchanged for nostalgia and indifference. The rituals and celebrations that were introduced by the Soviet regime were therefore performed without enthusiasm or with feigned interest. While FESTIVALS was being shot, Lithuanian partisans were still battling against the occupying Russians, who pursued them mercilessly.
