Happy People’s Pilgrimage Place

A photography studio rivals perhaps only restaurants in the number of important life events it marks. From the 1910s to the 1980s, the photo studio in Strenči welcomed its visitors mainly on happy occasions, leaving black-and-white imprints on their lives. What of that happiness can a smile on a glass negative revive today? Maybe the place is a vessel of memories, rather than the photograph?

❯ Thursday, March 12, 6:30 PM
Book launch and performance by aerial photographer Juris Kalniņš, dedicated to an unknown visitor of the Strenči photo studio

❯ Saturday, March 14, 3:00–4:30 PM
Talk with film critic Vadim Agapov, Total Strenči Recall, about the peculiarities of photography meant for the “long memory”

❯ Thursday, March 19, 6:00–9:00 PM
An opportunity to explore the installation dedicated to the book Rīgas 17, Strenči and reflect on photography as a tool of memory together with the book’s authors

IInterieur of Strenči Photo Studio, 2025

Video work by Vladimirs Svetlovs

Chair from Strenči Photo Studio, 1920s

The Strenči Photo Studio Heirs’ Collection