Lars Tunbjörk: Lettland / Latvia / Latvija

Candid portraits from Latvia, depicting life in the suburbs captured just a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union. This book presents the work Tunbjörk made in Latvia through his numerous visits.


Foreword by Maud Nycander:
The first time Lars and I visited Latvia was in 1996, just a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union. The meeting with Latvia was shocking, but also exotic. Only 15 miles from Gotland was a neighboring country, it was very similar to ours. The people had the same facial features and the nature might as well have been Swedish. Parts of the countryside were reminiscent of images from Swedens' 1930s. This, combined with all the imprints and traces of the Soviet Union's occupation, was a transformative experience.

We visited an abandoned Soviet military facility. It was a surreal and strange experience, as if the place was left completely unplanned, that the people just got up and left. Personal letters, clothes, military equipment were left all over. Suddenly we understood that there were also people living among the remains. Lars later returned with journalist Gunnar Lindstedt.

Today it is a quarter of a century since these pictures were taken and we had no idea then that war, the fear of war, would again become a reality in Europe.


Swedish...
Första gången Lars och jag besökte Lettland var 1996, bara några år efter Sovjetunionens fall. Mötet med Lettland var chockartat, men också exotiskt. Bara 15 mil från Gotland låg ett grannland, det mycket påminde om vårt. Människorna hade samma ansiktsdrag och naturen kunde lika gärna varit svensk. Delar av landsbygden påminde om bilder från 30-talets Sverige. Detta i kombination med alla avtryck och spår från Sovjetunionens ockupation var en omvälvande upplevelse.

Vi besökte en övergiven sovjetsk militäranläggning. Det var en surrealistisk och märklig upplevelse, som om platsen lämnats helt oplanerat, att människorna bara rest sig upp och gått. Personliga brev, kläder, militärutrustning låg kvar huller om buller. Plötsligt förstod vi att det även bodde människor bland kvarlämningarna. Lars återvände senare med journalisten Gunnar Lindstedt.

Idag är det ett kvarts sekel sedan dessa bilder togs och inte anade vi då att krig, rädslan för krig, åter skulle bli en realitet i Europa.