Photographs by Antanas Sutkus. VALDAS ADAMKUS – 100

In Antanas Sutkus’ photography archive, one can find a folder with the title “President Valdas Adamkus”. It contains dozens of film strips that have been stored for several decades already. Many of them have never seen the light of day until this honourable anniversary occasion of President Valdas Adamkus.

 

Looking back on the multitude of moments from Adamkus’ life that Sutkus captured, it becomes apparent that you’ll hardly find any of the usual pictures of presidential life, such as shots with eminent figures or images from official state events. Here, Sutkus looks upon Adamkus with a friendly gaze. We see him in his daily work environment in the United States of America, during his visits to Lithuania, or with friends and his beloved wife Alma Adamkienė in their home environment.

 

Sutkus recalls the first time they met at the Lithuanian Photographers Association, when the future signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania, geography professor Česlovas Kudaba, turned up at the gallery on Gediminas Avenue, accompanied by his colleague from America who was then visiting Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus: “I showed these guests some of my own and other authors’ photographs. Adamkus and I soon felt a mutual friendly connection. Moreover, we sensed that we could trust one another, and speak more boldly and openly. Those were still rather dark times, when the security service would sneak its way in to just about any shot, just like a cat”.

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Adamkus’ stay in Lithuania was then drawing to a close. He inquired if I and other authors might need some Western photography equipment, which he could bring over during his next visit. I declined the offer, as another one of our honoured émigrés, art photographer Jonas Dovydėnas, had already expressed the same kind of gesture”.

The next time they met was in Chicago in 1990, where Sutkus had arrived to create the photography cycle “World Lithuanian”: “During conversations with our diaspora in the USA, I sensed the authority that Valdas Adamkus held. I thought he was the most well-known ‘world Lithuanian’. Once he showed me George W. Bush’s number saved on his phone.

 

My wife was on the Žirmūnai Electoral District Committee in Vilnius. Once her friends learned that I was planning on going to America, her friends called me over asked: “When you’re there, invite Adamkus to stand as candidate for president”. The people themselves had this wish. And so I knocked on the door to his office in Chicago, bringing him this message. After he heard me out, Adamkus replied: “Well, if that’s the news you’re bringing, we’ll need to continue our conversation over a good steak at a restaurant”. I felt that our future president had already given this idea some thought. He asked what I thought – would he be elected? I replied that I could be sure about Žirmūnai (smiling). And so the journey began. Of course, intellectuals from Lithuania had already talked this over with him as well.

 

Adamkus allowed me up close with total ease, naturally. He paid no attention to the camera. He understood a photographer’s work, and trusted me. Once, I took him to Kalvarijų Market in Lithuania. Spending that kind of time together, I also came to understand the complicated life of our postwar emigrants, so I also wanted to immortalise him alongside our regular local Lithuanians”.

 

This exhibition of Antanas Sutkus’ photographs is dedicated to mark the 100th birthday of Valdas Adamkus.

 

Exhibition patron

Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania Mindaugas Sinkevičius

Exhibition organisers

Antanas Sutkus Photography Archive, Public Institution

The Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania

National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

Exhibits owned by

Antanas Sutkus Photography Archive, Public Institution

Exhibition curators

Saulė Gerikaitė, Artūras Morozovas

 

Exhibition coordinators

Dr. Vydas Dolinskas, Dalius Avižinis, Andrius Kerulis, Rasa Nuobaraitė, Paulina Blažytė

 

Exhibition publishing coordinator

Gabija Tubelevičiūtė

 

Exhibition copy editor

Liuda Skripkienė

 

English translation

Albina Strunga

 

Exhibition information and marketing coordinators

Monika Petrulienė, Mindaugas Egidijus Puidokas, Ignė Kielaitė

Exhibition technical installation consultants

Kęstutis Karla, Aurimas Ramelis, Jūratė Šatūnė, Saulius Marteckas, Andrius Repšys

 

Exhibition sponsor

Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybės kanceliarija

 

Exhibition media sponsors

LRT, „Lietuvos rytas“, lrytas.lt, „JCDecaux“, „Žmonės“, „Legendos“, „Savaitė“