Major project planning

A loose overview
The year 2009 will be important in Lithuania for the following reasons. Historically, the country will celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the first mentioning of the word Lithuania in written form. Culturally, the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, will become one of the two European Capitals of Culture. Ethnically, the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant will close, causing further issues for the nearby town of Visaginas, inhabited predominantly by ethnic Russian-speakers moved to Lithuania when INPP was built during the Soviet occupation of the country. The year 2009 will also be the 21st anniversary of the founding of Sąjūdis, the group of Lithuanian artists and intellectuals who helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union. It’s also the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII, during which time Lithuania lost an estimated 95% of its Jewish population, the highest loss of any country during the Holocaust.

My final term (major) project uses the 1,000th anniversary of Lithuania as a springboard/excuse to photograph the subjects mentioned above, and many more besides. The photographs will be shot in urban and rural locations, at organised events as well as spontaneously. Every photograph will include at least one person in it. The idea is to create a photographic record of Lithuania as it passes through the 1,000th year (or summer, to be more exact) of its history.

The project will be shot in available light using a Nokia E61i mobile phone. The final photographs will be black and white, will be co-edited with a British designer living in Lithuania, and will go together to make a book.