Algirdas Šeškus found photography in 1975 when he learned that he would need to bring ten photographs to a job interview for the position of cameraman at the only television channel in Soviet Lithuania. Nobody looked at the pictures, but the camera he bought for the purpose showed him the world anew, and he continued photographing for the next decade.

Gėlės, flowers in Lithuanian, features an extremely rare series of pictures taken by photographer Algirdas Šeškus in the 1980s. The series is comprised of ten portraits of flowers originally commissioned as decor for an institutional building in the then Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. Yet, decoration wasn’t their only purpose. In reality, the flowers were intended to lift the spirit of the workers, making them happier and more productive. Expectations that Šeškus’ images were unable to fulfill. Not finding them encouraging enough, the authorities in charge deemed the photographs unfit for the task and rejected them. And that’s how they ended up forgotten under the photographer’s couch, where they remained for the last 40 years, until now. Eventually, it is due to their quiet, dramatic character that these photographs outlived their socialist duty and reached our days. Never exhibited or published before, this book presents the complete series of rejected flowers, along with a brief account of the episode written by Šeškus. Sorrowful, yet strikingly erotic, these images ultimately belong to today: a time unfit for the uplifting.

Editied and designed by Gabriel Pericàs.