Gvido Kajons

Gvido Kajons has been described as a master of refined, precise urban photography as well as a subjective documentalist. He has admitted that the satirically grasped street subject is what interests him most, since he has often found himself in the middle of it. Kajons’ photographs pithily and vividly speak about the Soviet era in Latvia. While they depict entirely domestic scenes and events, each picture is also a cutting, witty and sometimes paradoxical window into the realities of the time.

Kajons’ best-known black and white photo series “Theme  011” was made in the Soviet period, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The title is a reference to the trend at the time to include numerals in titles. In his work, the artist divides the “human period” from the “non- human period”, during which “Theme  011” was created as a satirical appraisal of the socialist environment. In the documentary shots, the individual is an element of the urban landscape. While the symbols, ideological slogans, parades and rituals and everyday life of the socialist period are recorded seemingly accidently, in truth they testify to Kajons’ typical patience in waiting for the right moment.  

Our Peace Programme. From the series “Theme  011“. 1980s.

Kindly. DOB. From the series “Theme  011”. 1980s.

Fish on a Line. From the series “Theme  011”. 1980s.

Latvian SSR Pigeons. From the series “TTheme  011”. 1980s.