Elena Krukonytė PORTRAITS OF MY PEERS

Inevitably, with the technologies they grew up with providing new forms of self-expression, almost everyone has a virtual version of their personality expressed through social media platforms and broadcast to the global world. This is the first generation of Lithuanians who go to study abroad en masse, but after talking with the people photographed in this project, who study at foreign universities – many of them consider Lithuania their home and are preparing to return here after completing their studies. These young people are united by the memory of a young Lithuania that had just regained its independence. The ideas, music, popular culture and trends of that time shaped the national and aesthetic perception of young people (Krukonytė analyzes this topic in more detail in the online archive of Lithuanian culture of the 1990s and early 2000s, on her Instagram account@90s_Lithuania ). Basically, the young generation is twofold – living in digital and real worlds: modern, dependent on technology, but at the same time romantic, valuing the connection with traditions, nature and interest in the past. Krukonytė notices that her and her peers’ lives are connected and intertwined: “We unconsciously feel a commonality with each other, we are connected by the memory of the young state of Lithuania, freedom, the desire to know the world and make sense of our existence.” The photographer immortalized people who discovered their field of activity, in which they are perspective and with their work contribute to the creation of current reality.