For four years now the Riga Photography Biennial - NEXT has been collaborating with the Lithuanian publisher NoRoutine Books to evaluate entries for the Seeking the Latest in Photography! award. An international jury of experts is charged with judging the submissions and selecting one young Baltic artist to receive the main prize, the opportunity to have their work exhibited in ISSP Gallery, while NoRoutine Books also selects its favourite of the young contenders, giving them the opportunity to publish their own photobook.

The goal of the Seeking the Latest in Photography! award is to discover and appraise the creative efforts of young artists who demonstrate the power of the image in their works, offering an original point of view and conceptual depth, suited to the times. It highlights emerging Baltic artists whose works are already dominated by these qualities. In 2021, the special prize – an opportunity to publish a photobook with the NoRoutine Books publishing house – was presented to Kristīne Krauze Slucka for her series Vibrations of a Material Universe. Thirst of Gold.

From all of the submissions to the Riga Photography Biennial’s - NEXT Seeking the Latest in Photography! award in the last three years, the publisher has thus far selected Latvian artists three times. In 2016, their award went to Ieva Balode, in 2018 to Madara Gritāne, in to Reinis Lismanis.

Kristine Krauze-Slucka (1979) is a visual artist based in Riga, Latvia. She observes and studies the topic of changes in the relationship between man and nature, employing a mixture of analog and digital media in her artistic practice, paying attention to the processes of adaptation and hybridization, often focusing on the material aspects of the chosen media. She has graduated from the ISSP School's two-year contemporary photography education programme and obtained a Master's degree from the Visual Communication Department of the Art Academy of Latvia (2020). She also received a scholarship from the Foundation of the painter Valdemars Tone (2020) and the Nordic and Baltic Young Artist Award 2020. She has received the Riga Photography Biennale – NEXT 2021 award, earning an opportunity to publish a book in collaboration with NoRoutine Books. The artist has participated in exhibitions since 2017.

NoRoutine Books was established as an independent publisher by the Lithuanian artists Gytis Skudžinskas and Vilma Samulionyte in 2014. Their aim was to create unique art books – in print runs of no more than 99 copies – that would be individually perfected in the studio after printing. Books made by NoRoutine Books have been exhibited in various important art centres and exhibitions.

Participants: Kristīne Krauze-Slucka (LV), NoRoutine Books (LT)
Organizer: Riga Photography Biennial in cooperation with NoRoutine Books, ISSP and Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia
Image: Kristīne Krauze-Slucka. From the series ‘Vibrations of a Material Universe. Thirst of Gold’, 2020 – 2021