“Ever since my gymnasium years, I have been tormented by the question: what is this thing we call life? What is the meaning of human existence? What is the future of humankind? I cared deeply that the chance to exist in a world full of beauty and wonder would not pass by in vain. One must contribute at least a small part of oneself.
When I became a literature lecturer, I discovered how badly we lacked visual material about the founders of our literature and its more prominent writers—material that helps spark interest and enables a deeper understanding of the people who fought for cultural growth, the awakening of society, and the struggle against oppression.
During my many travels across Lithuania, I made an effort to photograph writers’ birthplaces, their surroundings, monuments, and graves. I had to search archives for portraits and images of the people around them, and I distributed the collected material to schools in the form of folders.
Later, I became involved with the writers of my own time and their activities. I wanted to honor the more outstanding personalities by preparing their portraits for publication and for exhibitions.” — Ona Pajedaitė
From November 10 to 28, the Chapel – the cultural creation center of Anykštėnai of the world will host a jubilee exhibition of Ona Pajedaitė’s photographs from the collections of the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association: Writers, Literary Critics and Poets. The exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of this distinguished photographer and chronicler of cultural life.
Ona Pajedaitė began photographing in 1963 and, from 1970 onward, regularly documented literary and cultural events. After leaving her teaching career in 1975, she devoted herself to professional photography. Hundreds of her photographs were printed in newspapers, magazines, and books, and many literary television programs were illustrated with her work.
From 1980 onward, she exhibited her work widely, holding about 50 thematic exhibitions that were displayed roughly 180 times. Her personal archive contains and organizes 65,000 negatives.
Since 1981, Ona was a member of the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association. She created an impressive gallery of portraits of Lithuania’s cultural and artistic figures. She was also the first Lithuanian photographic artist to fully organize her creative archive, compiling and publishing a comprehensive catalogue of her photographic work, Photographic Bibliography: Ona Pajedaitė (2003).
