Neputns publishes Uldis Briedis photography book Recent Times.
Photographer Uldis Briedis belonged to that generation of senior masters of their craft, whose accumulation of historical evidence created in their work belongs to the golden fund of time. Tirelessly continuing to sort through the rich archive he gathered during his work as a press photographer, Uldis Briedis has selected from it an excellent continuation of his first contribution Time Hunter (Neputns, 2010). If in it he rummaged through the oldest sections of the archive, looking into people and events from the end of the 1960s to the Awakening and the active early years of the new country, the agenda is now the diverse life of the already stable free state as it unfolds to the eyes of a trained observer in the 21st century. The book contains about 220 photographs, mostly taken after 2000. The book consists of 3 parts - Country, Environment, Culture, it tells about the development of the political situation, during which Uldis Briedis documented the most important politicians and the conditions they created. An equally important part of the book is made up of photographs of Latvian cultural workers and documentary coverage of everyday life, revealing both the peculiar and the typical in the everyday life of Latvia, which is based on the search for freedom. Observations of Uldis Briedis tend to be epic, lyrical, and ironic, but always sharp-sighted and emotionally effective. We can talk about a personalized visual image of this time created by a talented photographer.
Raimonds Ķirķis: "Today, everybody is a photographer, with all the tools for capturingmoments at their disposal. But not everyone has the talent to doggedlyand persistently discover Time. Uldis has made every effort to showit to us."
In this edition, the selection of works by Uldis Briedis is complemented with texts. The writer Osvalds Zebris provides a documentary review of Briedis' creative work and its creative qualities, Aivars Liepiņš shares his memories of Uldis Briedis, giving an insight into the photographer's profession, and Māris Zanders examines the political aspects of Briedis' photography.