Artists Kristians Brekte and Modris Svilāns present Solaris, an exhibition devoted to analogue photography. Both authors argue that as a result of technological development digital photography has become more accessible and increasingly popular, which has led to the demise of analogue photography – this historically significant way of documenting the world. The use of camera obscura enables photographers to preserve a close contact with the photographed environment, while remaining open to experiment and chance. Both artists have spent more than a year working with a self-assembled pinhole camera creating photographs known as solargraphs. Using long exposures, these images record landscapes created by the paths of the sun.

Kristians Brekte (1981) studied scenography at the Art Academy of Latvia. Currently he is Associate Professor and Head of the Environmental Art subdivision in the Department of Design. Since 2003 he has participated in group exhibitions in Latvia, as well as Europe, Russia and the USA. He was nominated for the Purvītis Prize for his exhibition The Madonnas of Riga (2010) and was awarded the Best Foreign Artist (under 35) award at the international contemporary art fair Art Vilnius’12.

Modris Svilāns (1979) studied metal design at the Art Academy of Latvia. He is an enthusiast of analogue photography and has participated in group exhibitions since 2003. His solo exhibition Inertia in 2012 at the Latvian Association of Architects was devoted to kinetic art objects and black and white photography. In 2014 he exhibited together with Kristians Brekte in Negative at Cesis Castle.