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Inta Ruka @ Fotografiska Tallin

Yesterday I went to see the exhibition by Latvian photographer Inta Ruka at Fotografiska Tallinn. I had really been looking forward to seeing these photographs on the wall. I first came across her work back in 2021, when I found her book People I Know in a bookshop in Oslo, Norway.

I remember being deeply impressed by these intimate 6×6 portraits, and exclusively in black and white, just the way I love it. And among my soon-to-be 500 photobooks, Ruka is one of those photographers I often return to when I pick a book from the shelf, whether it is for pure enjoyment, self-study, or simply to show friends who happen to drop by.

For me, that is proof that I see qualities here that I don’t find every day and everywhere.

Ruka was born in Riga in 1958. At that time, Latvia was not the Latvia we know today. Back then it was called the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, or Latvian SSR. It was only after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 that the country became independent and opened up.

That is probably one of the reasons Ruka was able to gain access to people who, through her portraits, you can clearly see were living under very poor conditions in the Latvian countryside. Yet despite these simple circumstances, Ruka was always concerned with portraying people with dignity. She wanted to show that every person has a meaning and a purpose in society.

Something I absolutely think she has succeeded in doing with her portraits.

They feel personal, even though it is quite obvious that the photographs are staged. But that is, of course, what happens when you photograph people with an old Rolleiflex on a tripod and, as far as I can tell from her photographs, mostly using natural light.

But what an atmosphere that creates!

This is analogue photography at its very best. Today’s perfect and over-polished AI cannot compete with this in any way. This is the real thing. And here comes the sigh from an enthusiast like me: Free us from evil — keep AI out of the photographic space! It can exist as its own image genre, but photography it definitely is not! Well, that was my little sigh.

The work in the red light
Back to Inta Ruka. She was married to photographer Egons Spuris, and she has always done all the work herself, from taking the photographs to producing the final prints. She handled the darkroom work herself and therefore had complete control from start to finish.

Whether that is still the case today, I don’t know. But at the Fotografiska exhibition, there was a film made about Ruka showing how she worked with light and darkness in her photographs using good old-fashioned darkroom techniques.

She started photographing in the 1970s, and along the way to where she is today, she has received a number of prizes and awards. I will leave it at that, and those interested in the details can do a little searching online and find out more.

But I can mention that one of her early recognitions was a scholarship from the Hasselblad Foundation in 1998, followed later by a two-month residency as an artist in residence in Stockholm in 2007.

So yes, she has definitely been noticed on the international scene.

These are powerful photographs, and I am very glad I made a separate visit to see this exhibition. Now I am recharging for the exhibition opening with Vivian Maier tomorrow. But you actually do get noticeably tired from all the impressions that have to be digested when exhibitions are large. You need a little break before you are ready for even more.

-And that will be tomorrow.

Same place, 20:00.

See you at the opening?