The exhibition "Human Baltic" opened on Wednesday (May 28) at the Spiral Garden Gallery in Tokyo and showcases humanist photography classics from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in Japan for the first time.

The joint exhibition's Estonian partner and Juhan Kuus Documentary Photo Center's curator Toomas Järvet told "Delta" the large public interest came as a surprise.

Spiral Garden is one of the city's most infamous and prestige cultural centers and the most prized design center in Tokyo. "At the opening, it was amazing to hear words of recognition from the local specialists. It makes you feel proud that the Baltic photography masters exhibition is here. It is not often that Estonia gets to show its photographic art in such exhibition institutions," he told the show.

The exhibition focuses on the 1960-1990s which are considered to be the golden age of photography. "It is odd to call the Soviet Union occupation period golden, but the true masters of the three Baltic countries were already working at the time, reaching the high points of their careers. Their work displays much of the everyday life of that time, hidden criticism, and there is art on the walls that was forbidden during the Soviet Union," Järvet said.

All the works are in black and white, and every country is represented by five artists. Estonia is represented by Ene Kärema, Peeter Langovits, Arno Saar, Kalju Suur, and Peeter Tooming. In the photos, they display the greyness and sadness of the Soviet Union, as well as the gentleness and romance of the childhood farm life. They created the Baltic Way app for the exhibition to introduce Japan to the history of the Baltic country's united struggle for freedom.

Järvet said public interest has been high as about 1,000 guests visit the exhibition each day. "I am positively surprised that they are so engaged, taking their time, and reading the accompanying texts," the curator said, and added that the local media have also praised and recommended the "Human Baltic".

Järvet said the people are very nice, hand out business cards, and catalogs, and promise to keep in touch. "We are working very hard for this trip to be the root in the context of future projects, so Estonian authors can express themselves, and we are always interested in Japanese authors who we can bring to Estonia. There is teamwork and interest."

At the same time, Järvet hopes that they will find more opportunities to organize such events. "We have had to invest so much money ourselves into this since our funding applications were not approved, at least not for this exhibition," he said.

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