The first daguerrotypes appeared in Paris in 1839; just three years later they had reached Riga. Another six months later the lithographer Ernst Schabert in Jelgava (then Mitau) began producing his own daguerrotypes and selling equipment for their production. The first known photographer in Riga was Andrejs Bērmanis who took the first images in 1854. In 1864 the painter Jūlijs Feders opened his own photography studio. The first Latvian association of photographers will celebrate its centennial in 2006.

Our photographers immortalized housewives and matriarchs in romantic images that their great-granddaughters can only envy. Along with developing their own artistic talents, the photographers – Mārtiņš Buclers, Vilis Rīdzenieks – pushed forward the photographer’s art by experimenting with photomontage, varied lighting and painting on the emulsion of the negative. Among the important figures in the history of Latvian photography was also the world-famous Gustavs Klucis who used photomontage in his artwork.

In the Soviet era photography was increasingly used as a means for asserting artistic individuality and revealing intimate emotion. Gunārs Binde, Andrejs Grants, Inta Ruka, Egons Spuris and Vilhelms Mihailovskis have been awarded prizes in international exhibitions. Their work, along with that of Gunārs Janaitis, Uldis Briedis, Valdis Brauns, Leonīds Tugaļevs, Māra Brašmane, and Gvido Kajons, is regarded as national treasure.

The miniature camera Minox is the 1932-33 invention of the Latvian-born Walter Zapp. The camera was mass produced by our VEF factory in 1937-1943. During the war, the Germans took the Minox secret to their own Zeiss factories and later it reached the United States to be used in intelligence operations.