Press photographer Izidorius Girtis memorial room
Memorial Room
Established in the premises of the Anykščiai L. and S. Didžiuliai Public Library Press photographer Izidorius Girtis (1903–1989) – memorial room. During the interwar period, I. Girčys was one of the most important and productive press photographers, who was shaken by the hand and thanked for his photographs by the President of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona, members of the then government, and celebrities of the pre-war era.
According to art historian Tomas Ivanauskas, press photographer I. Girčys was second in importance and activity in the interwar period, after Vytautas Augustinas, who was considered the best photographer at the time. For the main problems of interwar Lithuanian national photography raised in his articles, I. Girčys was included in the monograph „Camera obscura: The history of Lithuanian photography, 1839–1945“ (2016) prepared by Margarita Matulytė and Agnė Narušytė. (Tomas Ivanauskas, "The Matter of Lithuanian Photographers", pp. 375–384.).
The space dedicated to honoring the heritage of I. Girčis was established in the Anykščiai Public Library in 2019 as part of the project „The Room of Press Photographer I. Girčis – a Center of Attraction and Creative Space“ funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture. During the implementation of the project, special lighting was applied to the interior of the room, and the walls were covered with photographic images. The surviving photographs of I. Girčis were used as exhibits to fill the walls. Copies of the photographs are presented as an element of the room’s interior. The visual text of the educational installation is supplemented by short texts by photography historians and thoughts and memories of famous Anykščiai residents about I. Girčis, and the photographer’s biography is presented. The memorial room exhibits I. Girčis’s belongings as a photographer (cameras, glasses, photo development equipment, etc.). The exhibited photographs by I. Girtis capture images of pre-war Kaunas and post-war Anykščiai, and visitors can browse interwar magazines "Jaunoji karta", "Karys" and other publications in which I. Girtis's articles and photographs were published. Visitors will also see a metal sculpture composition created by metal artist Romualdas Inčirauskas in memory of photographer I. Girtis (2018).
Looking back at the prehistory, it should be noted that the residents of Anykščiai knew I. Girčis as a photographer, but many thought that he took photos with an empty camera, because he did not provide photos to everyone he photographed.
Irma Randakevičienė, a photography enthusiast and researcher, a member of the Anykščiai Teresė Mikeliūnaitė Local History Society, and a doctor of law, decided to look for I.Girčys' photos. She managed to find a whole box of negatives (about 60 thousand frames) in the house of I. Girčys' son Vilius Girčys (1952–2022). In 2013, V. Girčys agreed to have his father Izidorius's negative archive transferred to digital media. For almost two years, I. Randakevičienė patiently scanned the negatives, systematized the photos, and since then, some of the photos have become publicly available through social networks.
Dr. Irma Randakevičienė discovered and helped preserve an impressive photographic heritage. Without her efforts, no one today would know what a vast photographic archive was kept by the press photographer I. Girčys, who lived in the Anykščiai region.
Let us remind you that I. Girčys lived in the Anykščiai region after World War II. In 1948, when he started publishing the newspaper „Kolektvyni darbas“ (now „Anykšta“), he became the first press photographer of the Anykščiai region. His photographs from the post-war period are like a visual encyclopedia of Anykščiai. Despite the fact that many people did not have the photographs he took, some of them have now become publicly available in the virtual space. Since 2014, a number of archival photographs have been transferred to the Anykščiai region photo album Anykščiai region photo album (anykstenai.lt) thanks to Tautvydas Kontrimavičius, curator of the A. Baranauskas and A. Vienuolis-Žukauskas Memorial Museum.
On July 22, 2017, the negatives and digitized photographs of photographer I. Girtis were transferred to the Anykščiai Public Library, where not only the negatives but also 33,865 photographs scanned by I. Randakevičienė are currently stored.
On July 20, 2018, an artistic memorial sign with the inscription „Suspended moments of life / photojournalist / Izidorius Girčys / 1903–1989“ was installed on the facade of the Anykščiai Public Library building. (The implementation of this idea was financially supported by the Vilnius Anykščiai Community, headed by Regina Smetonaitė). https://nyksciai.lt. The author of the artistic solution-project of the memorial plaque is metal sculptor, medalist Jonas Žukas (1940–2019).
I. Girtis's photographs have become an important visual testimony of the history of the Anykščiai region. Although many people did not have access to these photographs during his lifetime, their discovery and digitization, thanks to Dr. Irma Randakevičienė, made it possible to open I. Girtis's creative legacy to the general public. Now his photographs, stored in the library and made public in the virtual space, provide an opportunity for new generations to get to know the past Anykščiai and Lithuanian life. The Izidorius Girtis Memorial Room in the library has become a center of attraction, reminding us of his contribution to Lithuanian press photography and the perpetuation of local history.
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