The photography exhibition, “Remembering Life” featuring works by photographer Inta Ruka is on display at the museum from May 14, 2022.
The exhibition features black and white portraits of people who were in war, fled from war horrors, or were in situations that threatened their lives and they agreed to talk about their fears, choice and prowess. They are World War II witnesses, refugees and people who fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, or another country.
The author became interested in this topic after an invitation to participate in the exhibition: “A Bigger Peace, A Smaller Peace”. This sparked an idea to continue to photograph and listen to people who have participated in different wars or have been in life-threatening situations, or have had to make a significant decision related to someone’s survival. This is the second photo series on the theme of war, the first series was about women who participated in the war in 1939 in Finland.
Inta Ruka admitted that when she started working on the project, she would never have believed that she would meet, for example, Argentine revolutionaries. But people seemed to have found her themselves. Mostly, she met and photographed her subjects in Sweden and Latvia. Ruka remembers that while taking the photographs she was overcome by the stories of these people because they were so full of humanity and emotion. War often does not give you a choice, you receive a summons and go. But peacekeepers voluntarily choose to go to war, so that others may live. “Listening to these stories, I had to think – how would I act, what would matter to me, whether I would be ready to die, so that others could live, what my decisions would be in such difficult situations. I admire the courage of people,” says I. Ruka.