Photography, which was patented in Paris in 1839, forever changed not only the history of visual culture, but also the processes of human visual perception and memory, allowing the world to be fixed in time "as it is", almost without human intervention. Daguerreotype, ambrotype and tintype, or the so-called direct positive technique on copper, glass and iron plates are the first and oldest photographic techniques created in the 19th century and preserved in small numbers also in Latvia.
The old photographs mostly are portraits – imprints of both known and unknown faces. In the early days of photography it was often referred to the imprint of the soul. The nature of the material knows no compromise – silver oxidizes, glass breaks, iron rusts, sooner or later taking with it the once-fixed content. The exhibition is dedicated to the fragility of our memory, the beautiful but invincible struggle with time and volatile history, which is destined to disintegrate along with the souls of the people in the photographs.