I should point out however

I should point out however as come to think of it I haven’t actually mentioned it anywhere, that the main theme of the project is to photograph, initially, the remaining members of the Trakai Karaite community, then, if things go well, to work on the rest of them in Lithuania. Other cultural issues such as food, religion, language etc, and how to go about looking into them photographically, remain side issues that I may or may not explore depending on how the project progresses.

More thoughts about the Karaite

Searching the internet for Karaite-related information today I came across the BBC Who Do You Think You Are site. For those who aren’t familiar with it it’s a documentary series that’s hitched a ride on the back of the current obsession with tracing family history that follows celebrities as they attempt to unravel the mysteries of their ancestral past. I’ve seen a few of them, but not the one that came up in my search, namely the programme that focused on the English actor David Suchet. The two things I find of particular note about the series are the importance of family history as a way of telling historical stories in a personal way and the fact that we don’t really know much about our ancestors, and are quite often astonished when we start to look into them. Suchet knew his family history less than a hundred years back, namely that of his grandfather who came to the UK from South Africa. He knew that he had Eastern European Jewish roots, but no more than that. Using a Russianised version of his family name he managed to work his way back to of all places Lithuania, or rather modern-day Lithuania that at the time he was interested in knowing more about was, after exhaustive research both part of tsarist Russia and the Prussian Empire. Dipping into old records he soon discovered that far from being descended from Eastern European Jewry he was in fact the descendent of Turks (thus the connection with the Karaite, who incidentally weren’t mentioned in the programme but who came up in the comments left on the series website by its readers). Anyhow, the thing that really struck me in relation to the project I’m embarking on with the Karaite is that it’s particularly important to create this series of portraits for the benefit of future generations. Photographic evidence on its own is powerful enough (eg. the slow cultural changes in Karaite clothing from their traditional costumes in the late 19th century through to the now uniform (no pun intended) adoption of Western clothing. With the addition of some writing, I firmly believe the project will make a significant addition to the history of the Karaite, not least because from all the research I’ve do far uncovered, nobody has made any serious or otherwise photographic record of the Karaite community. Ethnically, the Lithuanian Karaite are utterly unique, despite sharing some common heritage with their neighbours over the border in Poland. This is most evident in their language, which contains many instances of Lithuanian alongside the Polish and Russian influences as seen in the language of the Polish Karaite (of which I should point out there are less than the population of the Lithuanian Karaite). The last head count of the Lithuanian Karaite population took place in 1997, of which it was found that there were 252 left in the country, 60 or so of them in Trakai, the spiritual home of the Turkic offshoot of the world Karaite movement. Alongside the language, I’m particularly interested in recording somehow their religious practices (the Karaite are unusual in that they remove their shoes before entering a kenesa, or Karaite synagogue), which must surely betray their Turkic (Islamic?) origins. Their folk art also looks entirely Islamic, and their food is also very non-Jewish. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, most remaining Lithuanian Karaite are busy integrating within modern Lithuanian society, with only a handful attempting to hang on to their original culture. This was brought home to me when I made my test picture of Artūras, who when asked if he was going to marry a Karaite woman said it depended entirely on his heart. Following ones heart may be the best way to live life, but under certain circumstances it can mean whether an entire ethnic group survives or is wiped off the face of the planet. Unfortunately, yesterday I couldn’t attend the session with John, and this weekend I’m busy with other things, so there’s not much to report on the Karaite project beyond my usual trains of thought. I have however emailed representatives of the Karaite community (on the recommendation of Artūras) but don’t hold out much hope for a response. As in most things, it’s the personal touch that’s going to move things along. More research has uncovered the fact that nobody really knows who the Lithuanian Karaite are. There’s no doubt that they came from the Crimea at the end of the 14th century, but how this ethnically Turkic group ended up converting to Karaite Judaism, and exactly who they were when they did, remains a total mystery. Just how I’m going to go about this project visually also remains at least in part a mystery. I decided before I made my first trip to Trakai last weekend that I was going to do the project in black and white, but beyond that I don’t have much idea about style. Most important is a visual record accompanied by an underlying documentary/journalistic approach to the work. I’ve been looking at portraits today, and although I find the more interesting and dramatic examples visually exciting, I do wonder if sometimes this style of over-romanticising photography takes more away from the very essence of the subject than it adds. I suppose only time can tell where all of this is going to lead me.

The Karaite

Artūras Lavrinovičius
23, Trakai
Single
Business studies student and administrator in Karaite restaurant in Vilnius

Dear John

Not much in the way of new things to show this week, more a quick update including where I’m and where I hope this is going to take me. I’ll be brief.



Borders
Have abandoned the history of Vilnius idea because I can’t see it fitting with the Nokumentary postcard approach. Instead, firstly for aesthetic reasons I took the borders idea literally and have started putting white borders on my mobile phone street pictures. On a black background they look superb. Second, I’m churning this new material out at a ridiculously low size. As the global economy crumbles around our ears I think it’s time to think small. Paul Klee took a line for a walk and created small masterpieces. I take my phone for a walk and try to do the same. About the pictures I take with my phone on the street, I’m trying to capture the essence of what I see in front of me. Unlike the current trend in street photography (no time to quote anyone) that’s more about showing how clever the photographer is (people going up ladders into the sky, people who look like people in posters behind them etc), I’m really charmed with the idea of truly documenting the briefest of moments that somehow show more. I try hard to make my pictures look good of course, but not clever. Never clever. I’m going to keep moving forwards with this and see where it takes me. No plans as yet to abandon the idea as the Borders project. I’m treading the borders of acceptable documentary photography already, so that’s ok with me. Sometimes I despair at this work, but general I see an interesting and worthwhile body of work coming together.


Mobile Nation
As I start to write this sitting in a temporary office I realise Dainius’ new photographs are on my laptop back at the flat. Never mind. Dainius has just split with his girlfriend, and is trying to get his client, Daniel, the guy in the wheelchair, a girlfriend. He’s been photographing some of it. The project remains chaotic because as far as I know there’s no precedent plus until Dainius finishes and sends back the questionnaire I sent him I can’t really start putting ideas together. I’m still young, and this is such a great idea, that I’m in no hurry. To up the ante a little, I’m working on adding my second person to the project, my friend Douglas in Greece. Douglas had a massive stroke four years ago, which has severely affected the left side of his body (his arm is totally useless and his leg is so bad he has to go everywhere with a stick) and his mind, which has gone from an arrogant, outspoken, sharp tool into something that would belong better inside the head of a shy four-year-old girl. For a few months earlier this year I started a photographic project with Douglas, filming his life on my dSLR. My lifestyle means I find this difficult to keep up with, so have thought about getting Douglas to start taking photographs with his phone and to work on a project with me. He’s already started writing his life story. Damn this job thing gets in the way of the things I really should be doing!


DJ portraits
A co-project with an English designer living here in Vilnius. He wants a series of portraits of the best DJs in Vilnius and wants me to photograph it. The project will be shot on dSLR and co-edited. I want and need to do more portraits.

The Karaite
Tomorrow I go to Trakai for the weekend for work. Trakai, 28km west of here, was the ancient capital of Lithuania. In the 14th century the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas brought members of the Karaite community back to work as his personal bodyguards as well as the guards of Trakai itself. Vytautas (Polish, Witold) brought them from the Crimea where he’d been fighting the Golden Horde, but Karaite history goes back further than that. They originate from Mesopotamia, were originally Jews (some say the lost tribe) and they split in two several hundred years ago. What little there remains of the Karaite community in the world still adhere to their Old Testament beliefs. The Lithuanian Karaite on the other hand (of which there are around only 300 left) acknowledge both Jesus and Mohamed and are a strange bunch indeed. I recently met one of them, a restaurant owner, and he’s agreed to be photographed. Wouldn’t it be great to make a record of the entire community? I can follow this up next week when I return.

In short then, plenty of ideas but not much photography. I feel ashamed. There’s only about 10 minutes of fucking daylight here in the winter anyway. It’s going to snow all weekend. I’ll be taking lots of photographs.

Oh, and I got the page proofs back from the book we’re doing about Albania, complete with my photographs. They look good.

Ignore this post

Find more photos like this on mapjd08online

More interesting things at Flickr

Bloody bored stupid with people poking fun at Flickr but I'll continue to lend it some plaudits from time to time as and when needed as it's better than all of you put together. Now then, a nice Pool somebody set up here called the Chinese Restaurant Worldwide Documentation Project, of which one of my photographs (above) has been added. It's an interesting idea for a Pool, and is quite active and serious on one level (read some of the Discussions for example). What I particularly like about it (and this can be said for Flickr in general) is that one's free to get involved on any level they want. An admin from the group was trawling the pages and found my picture. It was invited to the Pool. I could then decline or accept and instantly become part of a international group of people showing photographs. I was then free to get more involved (having decided to add my picture to the Pool) or not, the latter in this case being what I did. As I keep showing you, Flickr is extraordinary. I'm not sure what the problem is that so many people have with it. Actually I don't really care any more.