IMPRESSIONS

The exhibition shows works made over the past few years in the technique of the acacia-resin print. The technique is also called gum printing, from the German gummidruck, and the dichromate print, from the English dichromate print. Since one of its components, along with ammonium dichromate and various pigments, is gum arabic (acacia resin), I have taken the liberty of introducing this name for it. For the sake of clarity, because gummidruck has nothing to do with rubber.

Using alternative techniques — besides being tremendously interesting — makes it possible to bring an image of photographic origin closer to graphic art. That is because one of the basic principles of printmaking is observed: the movement from matrix to original. The photograph then gains new, often unpredictable nuances of appearance; it moves away from the essence of an endlessly reproducible,
perfection-tormented medium.

In terms of content, the works in this exhibition could be called the lights and shadows, contrasts, textures, fields and other visual substances that provoke an artist's obsession — seen on journeys and wanderings and caught in little traps of light. It is good and comfortable to feel independent of a commission. To accumulate, and then later to get all of it off oneself, to move it onto paper and show it to the viewer.” – says the artist Raimo Lielbriedis.

Self-taught. Maker of photographs. Ambrotypist. Teacher at the Janis Rozentāls Art School of the National School of Arts. Maker of pinhole cameras. Alchemist of photography.

My works are not photographic art. There are no hidden, contorted ideas in them. There are no superhuman reflections, no sense of absence, no estrangement of the object, nor other strange things. My works are first of all photographs, and then originals that are hard to classify, whose appearance most often matters more than their content.