I Love My Library!

I spent several months working at the National Library of Latvia, where my assignment was to photo-document everything in the old historic library buildings (five in total), as well as the objects and details that could not be moved to the new building then under construction. At first, I expected this to be a monotonous and tiresome task—endless rows of bookshelves and none of the people I so love to photograph.

But what I discovered moved me deeply. I met people who truly loved their work and cherished their workplace. I was touched by their profound dedication. Many had been working there for decades and shared countless stories about their time at the library. The longer I spent there, the more I realized that the unique atmosphere of the library could never simply be transferred from the old buildings to the new one. Nor could the subtle “order of things” be preserved elsewhere: the rooms the employees had repaired with their own hands, their favourite desks, the plants they had tended for years, the familiar paths they took through the building—all of these details formed a world that was inseparable from its place.
For years this extensive body of work lingered in my mind, and eventually I decided to bring it together in a self-published book.