Losing someone is like the sky surrendering a star, a note falling silent in a familiar tune. Everything changes, with memories lingering in the air like echoes in empty rooms. Moments resurface unexpectedly: fragments of laughter, the warmth of a touch, vivid and almost too real to be gone. Moving forward feels strange, like walking on uneven ground, each step shifting what once felt certain. You drift between shadows and light, caught between the past and the future. Something within you subtly rearranges, yet nothing feels completely whole. Using photography as a medium, the artist captures the emotional terrain of loss - fragmented memories, fleeting moments, and the interplay of absence and presence - creating visual echoes that explore the fragile balance between holding on and moving forward. Ultimately, the piece becomes a “letter to self of the acceptance.”

The project “Dzen” is based on the study of ritual – its symbolic as well as practical meaning, which serves as a strengthening of the connections with the traditions of our ancestors, the cycles of nature and the mythological way of thinking. Ritual helps as a protective as well as healing mechanism, arranging oneself and the microcosm around. Many cultures have rituals that are similar in the idea and nature. For example, where bad, dark thoughts or forces are transformed into some animal or other creature which is then sacrificed - burned or driven away, thus hoping to get rid of the dark forces and protect themselves from evil and diseases. Today we have to think a lot about the healing power of such a ritual, as well as protecting and maintaining not only oneself and our loved ones, but also about protecting our land, identity and culture. It is important not to forget the knowledge of our ancestors, but bring it to life and apply to the nowadays cycle of everyday life and create a new narrative and perspective on mythology. In my work I visually and ritually revive an ancient Latvian spring solstice ritual, which was called "Chasing Birds" and “Calling Birds”. It was common only in a small part of the territory of Latvia, which was inhabited by a small ethnic group - Livs. According to this tradition several big birds symbolized evil spirits, diseases, misfortunes and performing various rituals, singing, making noise, people chased them into the forest. At the same time small birds were called to the yard as they symbolized returning of the light. The process of working on this project was really like healing for myself as it takes much time to go to the forest with large format camera, find abandoned places, think about the creatures and forces I want to chase away not only from my land, but from myself as well. The developing of images were also transformative and time consuming process as I shoot on regular photo paper and photo fabric and all these are direct positive reversal prints. The title “Dzen” in Latvian has different meanings. It means to chase away, break through and at the same time the state of mind – Zen or Zen Buddhism – the pursuit of enlightenment.

Pupa, a stage of a metamorphic insect’s life (such as a butterfly, a moth, or a bee), occurs between the larva and the imago. It is when an insect is enclosed in a cocoon or a protective covering and undergoes internal changes—in other words, a transformation—to reach a new stage. This project aims to treat photography as if it were in a pupa: in a stage of transition, temporality, and transformation. As photography is traditionally an extremely controlled, fixed, and human-oriented process, it reflects on hierarchy within image-making. By investigating conditions in which organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and plants live, I aim to actively involve the non-human other in the photographic process in order to question the image as well as my own control as an image maker. The process acts as a symbol for re-understanding our environment, from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric perspective. Bacteria and fungi are invited to find home on large film negatives and continuously alter image. The images portray landscapes of the Netherlands, environments that are thoroughly controlled by humans. By growing various bacteria and fungi on the film negatives, control given back to organic processes, and the image is repurposed to become a place to live. At the same time, conventional knowledge of looking is challenged when fungi start growing out of seminal books about photography, creating organic sculptures that provide fruits for alternative ways of knowing. It all comes together in one temporary, transformative matter that never looks or acts the same, where stillness and control are challenged.