Žanis Legzdiņš, PIE MUMS (IN OUR COUNTRY), 1963
photographs and foreword: Žanis Legzdiņš
graphic design: Gunārs Kļava publisher: Publishing house or Latvian newspapers and magazines, Riga year of publication: 1963 number of pages: 248 + 24 size: 32x29cm cover: hardback, linen with dust jacket number of copies printed: 10 000
Žanis Legzdiņš (1915–1991) was a long-term photography reporter at “Zvaigzne” (Star) magazine, which was the first illustrated lifestyle magazine in post-war Latvia, launched in 1950. He was also working for the main daily newspaper “Cīņa” (Fight). He was awarded the title of Honoured Cultural Worker, an especially prestigious award in the Soviet Union. He was at the centre of a newsreel story, and many of his exhibitions were organised. He had also good relationships with KGB. It could be said that Legzdiņš was one of the most popular photojournalists in Soviet Latvia.
The 248 page book holds more than 200 photographs from the early 1960s, mostly made for work purposes – photographing various events, urban and rural landscapes, portraits, life in the collective farms, hospitals and factories. Now combined in a photobook the images serve as as proof of the successful construction of the Soviet regime in Latvia (starting from national economy and ending with culture). In Soviet times politicians, editors, committees, publishing houses and censorship stood between the idea and the final product, thus the book had to have utilitarian functions and ideological objectives in order to be published (it changed only in 1980s). At times, there are more poetic photographs with nature and close-ups of flowers, which had become popular subjects among fine art photographers of 1960s. The textual parts of the book – an essay and the captions – are in three languages (Latvian, Russian and English). The texts in foreign languages are printed in a supplement. A couple of poems can also be found among the images – this strategy can be regarded as a pioneering effort for a practice very much favoured among Latvian photographers in the upcoming decades, namely, to accompany or to replace descriptions and captions with lines of poetry – it was thought that poetry renders a more spiritual and figurative dimension. The book also has a dust jacket, which is a rarity nowadays. Under the dust jacket there is a cover made of grey canvas, featuring a blind stamp of the contour of Latvia surrounded by sunbeams. A similar motif was used in another photo album issued a few years earlier, titled Dzintarzeme – Latvija (The Land of Amber – Latvia; 1960), although in this book the sun was not merged with Latvia, but instead positioned shining on it from above. It is interesting that the introductory words are written by the author himself, which is a very rare practice even nowadays. In the introduction, the author provides arguments for publishing the book, which, on the one hand, is full of pathos as a tribute to the Soviet ideology but, on the other hand, the book reveals the versatility of the photojournalist at the time, as well as his interest in the everyday of the “common man”. After all, as the author states, “my intention was to put our contemporaries in their creative work, quests and leisure time at the centre of the book”. This particular interest in the common man on the street, at the factory or office, or in his leisure time allows us to view this book also as a document of its time, rather than just simply a product of Soviet propaganda. And what makes it special is also the fact that this is probably the only Latvian photobook by a single photographer of the decade because in Latvia it was uncommon until the 1980s to produce auteur photobooks.
Arnis Balcus