Palladium

This photo series consists of found archive images, whose author – an unknown photographer – worked at cinema Palladium in the times of Soviet Riga. In the time period from the restoration of the cinema in 1957 up to the fire in 1963 Palladium not only showed films, but also organized children’s mornings, chess tournaments, performances of choir singing and folk dance, as well as the inevitable public speeches of the party ideologues.

Up to nowadays, we have strong feelings over the consequences of the Soviet period, and these images will always be interpreted individually, since any archive material brings along the feeling of nostalgia. Therefore, for me it is very crucial to avoid the romanticisation of this period.

Andrejs Strokins (1984) is a Latvian photographer who has graduated from the Department of Graphic Arts of the Art Academy of Latvia. He has studied photography at the ISSP Summer School, as well as Sputnik Photo and The Joop Swart master classes. Recently the Palladium has been released as a photobook.