Generation ’74

11 European Photographers born in 1974

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Is it all only about numbers or what do these 11 photographers have in common apart from the year they were born in?
Well, quite a lot actually. Today, every one of them is well known in their respective countries and beyond. Some are globally renowned and celebrated figures of photography, but before they became what they are now, they too experienced some historical milestones. They were turning 15 in the year when the Berlin wall came down; the guys from the ‘Eastern Bloc’ were between 16 and 18 years old when their countries regained their independences; and they experienced the expansion of the European Union in 2004 when they were in their thirties. “Generation ‘74” accommodated the Internet and digital photography at a mature age, without having discarded the fundamental ideas about life and photography. They all have created long-term projects based on the notion that the world has been transitioning from analogically unique to uniformly global. Their attitude towards taking pictures is imprinted by a sense of civic, social, and individual duty to make honest statements about their countries of origin, residence and those they visit on project trips. Their photographic works do not pretend to be fashionable, flashy, and are by no means superficial or glossy. Instead, they are humane, thoughtful, bitter, ironic, humorous, critical, and they are resonating with what people feel deep down, rather than say out loud.
From introductory text by Mindaugas Kavaliauskas

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Photographers: Simon Roberts (UK), Nick Hannes (Belgium), Kirill Golovchenko (Ukraine/Germany), Przemyslaw Pokrycki (Poland), Tomáš Pospěch (Czech Republic), Mindaugas Kavaliauskas (Lithuania), Vitus Saloshanka (Belarus/Germany), Gintaras Česonis (Lithuania), Borut Peterlin (Slovenia), Pekka Niittyvirta (Finland), Davide Monteleone (Italy).

Introductory texts lead from the idea of the joint project of the 74-ers generation in European photography to revealing their similarities, differences and unique features.
Every photographer’s work is presented in slots of 10 to 12 pages that start with a picture of childhood.
The sequencing of photographers in the book is based on their birth date in 1974.
The book ends with questions by Irina Chmyreva and every photographers’ answers to them which help reveal individual roads photography through the labyrinths of the time rich in transformations.

The premiere of the book took place at the Vilnius International Book fair, with the owner of the very first copy of the book being the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė.

Publisher of “Generation ’74” book, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas speaking with the first guest of KAUNAS PHOTO booth at Vilnius Book fair, President of President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė, telling her about the festival and the “Generation ’74” project. Photo by Robertas Dačkus, www.lrp.lt

Coming back to the question, what does it mean to be part of the “Generation’74” in photography? I would like to recap that we are different; we have different cultures and social influences, different photographic heroes, and different childhood memories, as well as a diverse range of photographic methodologies, genres and stories. How much do we differ from generation ‘75 or ‘73? One year younger or older does not make a huge difference, we are still very close one to other; the difference lies in us
as individuals, we are as we are. David, Tomáš, Pekka, Gintaras, Simon, Kirill, Nich, Mindaugas, Przemysław, Vitus and Borut, all artists with individual voices, as different and diverse as it is possible to imagine, with one thing in common – the year of our birth, 1974… and of course our love for photography.

From text by Irina Chmyreva

Editors Ángel Luis González (Spain/Ireland), Irina Chmyreva (Russia). Assistant editor Claudi Nir
Design and layout Ángel Luis González
Texts: Mindaugas Kavaliauskas (Lithuania), Irina Chmyreva (Russia)

Print run 500
First Edition 2015

ISBN 978-609-8032-10-9

UDK 77.04(4)(084)
Ge223

168 pages
Hardcover
Dimensions: 30,7 cm (height) x 24 cm (width) x 2,4 cm (depth)
Weight 1200 g.

Published by Kaunas Photo festival
VšĮ Šviesos raštas
Co-Organiser of the festival and Co-Publisher:
Kaunas Department of Lithuanian Photo Artists’ Association

Offset printing and binding in Lithuania by KOPA.eu

Sponsored by
The Lithuanian Council for Culture
The City of Kaunas
FRAME Finland

Price 25 EUR