The best historical book

„The Vitas Luckus monograph “Vitas Luckus. Biography. Work” was recognized as the best historical book at the photography festival “Les Rencontres d’Arles” (France)“

The oldest and the biggest photography festival in Europe Les Rencontres de la Photographie, which has been organized for 46 years in Arles (France), received submissions of 728 books from all over the world. The Commission members, among whom were famous book experts Markus Schaden, Rémi Coignet and Horacio Fernandez, nominated photography publications in two categories – best author and best historical book.

For the first time in the history of this prestigious festival, two Lithuanian books (the only books from the Baltic region) received an appreciation:

• The monograph “Vitas Luckus. Biography. Work” was nominated in the category best historical book. Publishers: Kaunas Division of the Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers in cooperation with the Lithuanian Art Museum (compilers: Margarita Matulytė and Tatjana Luckienė-Aldag), designed by Jurgis Griškevičius, printed by printing house KOPA;
• Gytis Skudžinskas’ book “Album” of exclusive design published by NoRoutine Books was nominated in the category of best author.

Despite the fact that the V. Luckus monograph was competing with books from the biggest world-famous publishing houses, such as “Steidl”, “Aperture”, and “Kehrer”, presenting world-renowned photographers: Diane Arbus, Henry Cartier-Bresson, and Martin Parr, the eight-member Commission voted unanimously in favour of the Vitas Luckus monograph. The winners were elected by the nominators of the contest “Discovery of the Year”: Krzysztof Candrowicz, Louise Clements, Fannie Escoulen, Claire Jacquet, Francesco Zanotas as well as Vera Michalski and Jérôme Marcas.

PRIX DU LIVRE 2015 / 2015 BOOK AWARDS

Lauréats / winners:

PRIX DU LIVRE HISTORIQUE / Historical Book Award
Monograph Vitas Luckus. Works. Biography
Margarita Matulytė et Tatjana Luckiene-Aldag
Kaunas Photography gallery & Lithuanian Art Museum, dec. 2014

PRIX DU LIVRE D’AUTEUR / Author Book Award
Tommaso Tanini / Discipula
H. said he loved us
Discipula Editions, nov. 2014

Mentions spéciales / Special mentions :
Miguel Angel Toneron, "The Random Series", Editorial RM, 2014
Dima Gavrysh, Douglas NIckel, "Inshallah", Kehrer Verlag, 2015

The award ceremony took place in the ancient theatre in the presence of thousands of spectators. K. Candrowicz announcing the winner of the historical books category said, “History is always written by the winners. The same applies to the history of photography. Without such a powerful tool as information sharing and communication through museums, galleries, the media and various publications, we would never have heard of such artists as Avedon, Newton, Cartier-Bresson, Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin. But the artists who lived behind the iron curtain never had access to these powerful tools. Thus, this book brings Vitas Luckus back to the history of world photography in which, despite his exceptional talent, he was not able to participate because of the political system of the time.” (Source: lrytas.lt).

The Head of the Kaunas Division of the Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers, Gintaras Česonis, rejoices at the fact that small countries have also been noticed in this most important European photography festival visited by almost 100,000 spectators.