VILNIUS - If you want to take a good look at the glitzier side of Lithuanian life, go see the fascinating new exhibition of Butautas Barauskas' work. Barauskas (pictured far right) is one of the best Lithuanian photojournalists around and the exhibition, entitled "About Gods and People," shows some 60 pictures taken over the last 10 years. The pictures colorfully and sometimes controversially expose the business, political and cultural elite in some unexpected and often bizarre angle.
His pictures are well known to many Lithuanians through his work for various Lithuanian publications and the fact that many of his images have been very high-profile. Barauskas, who now works for Zmones magazine (the Lithuanian equivalent of People), has an intriguing story to tell about nearly every photograph featured in the exhibition, although the story often lies in the consequences of the picture rather than the picture itself.
One such story, for instance, accompanies the picture of a smiling basketball cheerleader who accidentally uncovered her breast while dancing. Once the match organizers saw the picture in the media, they did not fire the costume designers, as one might assume, but instead canceled their contract with the dancers. The entire group lost their jobs, as well as their free entrance to games, of course.
Another story tells how Barauskas did not hesitate to go nude on a beach when he wanted to take a good shot of nudists lounging around in the sun. Or how he waded into the water up to his neck in his clothes in order to take a picture of Vytautas Landsbergis, a famous politician, much to the amusement of other holidaymakers on the beach who congratulated the photographer with a round of applause when he returned dripping wet back to shore.
But the result was definitely worth the effort. The picture became a commercial for the daily he was then working for and was splashed over trolleybuses all around the city for a time. It showed Landsbergis looking strangely like a seal while swimming in the sea.
Barauskas has said that he is used to lurking around for hours in order to get a good picture, just as he is sometimes forced to quickly learn a whole new skill in order to keep up with his subject, such as when he learned how to canoe so he could follow the MP Andrius Kubilius and his wife while they were on vacation.
But not only the rich and famous provide Barauskas with his subject matter. He has taken some wonderful pictures of "everyday" people as well, often making them appear far more exotic than the famous. Once, when he was taking pictures of some homeless people, Barauskas revealed that they asked him for "a model's honorarium." Apparently he got away with giving them five litas.
