This is the fifth year the Riga Photography Biennial’s - NEXT and ISSP Gallery Award for young Baltic photographers has been presented. The goal of the award is to discover and appraise the creative efforts of young artists who demonstrate the power of the image in their works, offering an original point of view and conceptual depth, suited to the times. Award finalist’s work presentation evening provides an opportunity to take a look at the projects by 5 young artists of the Baltic States.

The award was presented by an internationally renowned jury – the founder of the ‘BZH Photo’ festival and coordinator of the ‘Photo Days’ event in Paris Camille Gajate (FR), art critic, historian and curator Adam Mazur (PL), artist, professor and Head of the Photography Department at the Estonian Academy of Arts Marge Monko (EE), artist and curator Paulius Petraitis (LT) and artist and teacher Ieva Epnere (LV).

Participants: Ieva Baltaduonytė (LT), Ieva Maslinskaitė (LT), Kristīne Krauze-Slucka (LV), Līga Stibe (LV), and Hedi Jaansoo (EE)
Image: Ieva Maslinskaitė, from the series In a Pupa: Relearning photography from a non-human perspective, 2022