Living Latvia

By Jana Janina Planz
7 February - 3 March 2006

Jana Janina Planz will be exhibiting a series of beautifully shot photographs which detail the lives of people in parts of rural Latvia. These intimate images present snapshots of the lives of those who welcomed a photographer, and furthermore a stranger, into their homes, which will sit, in contrast, in a white gallery within a corporate space in Leeds.

Planz notes that her inspiration for this work stemmed from seeing an exhibition of Luc Delaheye's work Winterreise, which accounted his surroundings as he traveled through Russia: 'I was intrigued and wanted to make my own expedition.' However, she does insist that the project would not have been possible had it not been for Lana, a Latvian translator who is now a good friend. Planz insists that, whilst knocking on people's doors, Lana's interest in the project as well as her communication skills allowed Planz "not only to photograph them but to listen, to hear what they had to say."

Planz explains that "people were very open and friendly despite their years of occupations, but at the same time quite distrustful of strangers, which often made it a hard job to photograph them... We were not always welcomed, people were wary; they could not quite understand why on earth anybody would come and photograph them. I have to say that life in Latvia is very different, even now when the country has its independence and the economy is booming. The standard of living is very basic and the traces of communism are still relatively dominant.'

Living Latvia is Jana Janina Planz's first solo show in the UK.

Artist's biography
Originally from Hamburg in Germany, Jana Janina Planz lives and works in Leeds. Traveling tales make up much of the frame of her photography and are largely the reason why she photographs; moving, she says, allows her to distance herself from being 'swallowed by the performing centred westernised world'. We are therefore fortunate that she has chosen to document the ways of an old Latvia before it too becomes chewed up.