Andrejs Grants (born March 7, 1955) is a Latvian

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

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teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

. He studied at the Latvian State University (1973–78), worked in the “Ogre” photo studio (1978–1988). From 1979 he is a teacher at the House of Technical Innovation in Riga, where he gained his reputation as an influential photography teacher of many Latvian contemporary photographers, film-makers and artists, such as Ritums Ivanovs,

Arnis Balčus Arnis Balčus (born 1978) is a Latvian photography and video artist. Born in Riga, Latvia, Balčus lived and worked in his home town before moving to London in 2004. He took an MA course on photography at University of Westminster from 2004 to 2 ...

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Gints Bērziņš Gints Bērziņš (born 8 March 2002) is a Latvian luger who competes internationally. He represented his country at the 2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known ...

. At "Ogre" photo studio he formed an informal group "A" with photographers Inta Ruka, Valts Kleins and Gvido Kajons. Having influences by documentary photographers, such as

Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French artist and Humanist photography, humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 135 film, 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street ...

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Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his ...

, group "A" used a

reportage Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

style to document everyday life of Soviet Latvia, very often creating photographs full of

criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative or positive qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the ...

. Andrejs Grants gained international recognition by collaborating with group "A" ideological leader Egons Spuris'

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

Inta Ruka. Their project "Latvia: Changing and Unchanging Reality" has been shown internationally. Similar to Ruka's work, Andrejs Grants' main theme are the people in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. His photographs record a variety of Latvian people of different social levels, professions, nationalities, generations, people in their usual surroundings – in the city or countryside, at work or at home, in festivities or alone. In 2002 a monography "Andrejs Grants" was released by Neputns with a selection of his best work.

External links

Camp museum

Info on the show Stories about Riga
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grants, Andrejs 1955 births Living people Latvian photographers University of Latvia alumni Artists from Riga