Rimaldas Vikšraitis

Rimaldas Vikšraitis is best known for his artistic documentary photographs of rural life in his native Lithuania. In them, the habitual use of alcohol and the prevalent grime and poverty in the villages is depicted humorously, albeit with darker undertones. Through the social backdrop of his intriguing and wonderfully surreal images, Vikšraitis narrates the decline of local farms and traditional village life since the fall of the Soviet Union. His unflinching gaze embraces voyeurism, nakedness and drunken abandonment, and employs masks, saws, kitchenware, bicycles and animals in chronicling a world where people have nothing except their bodies, with no hope of improvement.

Rimaldas Viksraitis won the Discovery Award 2009 at the Rencontres d'Arles.