ENTRY DESCRIPTION
My black and white photography was born in direct contact with the nature of Neringa, surrounded by which I grew up and where my life view was formed. The environment around me, especially the dunes, inspired me to take up photography as a means of self-expression, which could capture and seal inner experiences.

The series "Daughters of Dunes" was born unplanned. My niece was due to give birth in just a few days. An unplanned meeting ended up in a photo session, which was going to happen now or never! And what’s more, there were two of them: my sister and her expecting daughter. We were to witness something unknown.

What messages to explore? What feelings and emotions are going to come out there? The future mother, in all her beauty, is feeling strong and confident, and yet she is trembling before the unknown, before the mystery she is about to experience. Her life will never be the same again. But at this moment she is a beautiful vessel, a protector, a bearer of new life.
Looking back into the past and giving place to the new generation, her mother, a symbol of the eternal circle of human life, is witnessing the scene.

And why the dunes?? You have these shapes of pregnant women in the dunes. Shapes of life coming out suddenly. Shapes they got through wind and time. Wind and time are shaping dunes as time and wind are shaping women to become mothers. Dunes are like cocoons, like bellies of pregnant women, where you feel in security, in the warmth of the belly of the world. They are protecting you in this moment. Warm sand, warm wind in the dunes—a place where you can be naked and open. It’s like the place of creation itself.

AUTHOR
I was born in Nida, Lithuania, in Soviet Union time. I was 16 when I picked up a camera and went out into the dunes to take photos. “Neringa” photo studio became my club. Photo exhibitions of juniors and adults in national and republican exhibitions were regularly organised. I was very active and won many awards for my photos both inside and outside Lithuania. I could organise several personal exhibitions in my town's school and cultural centre. I started dreaming about doing artistic photography. But I belong to the generation that had to witness the collapse of Soviet Union. After Lithuania regained its independence and separated from the Soviet Union, many changes took place within the country and also in my town. All activities in the field of art were severely shaken. We lost our premises and photo studio. I had to adapt to new living conditions, where there was barely room left for creativity.

I was very lucky when I recently had the opportunity to take part in a photo shooting, which brought me back to the days when I could create free and without restrictions. That’s exactly how I felt again with a camera in my hands in my beloved dunes, where light, time, movement, play a decisive role in every button press. It was my return to the dunes with a camera, as I used to do 30 years ago. I experienced a return to the past, but in a different quality, at a different existential point, with a deeper insight. Today I am sharing something very ephemeral and at the same time very tangible and real. My photo works reflect the way I see life, with love and gratitude knowing better the essence of what I would like to capture in them.

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