Quiet Stories of Everyday Life: Fotografiska Tallinn to Open Latvian Photographer Inta Ruka’s Exhibition

This week, Fotografiska Tallinn opens the exhibition Places Called Home by Latvian photographer Inta Ruka. Between 1983 and 2008, Ruka photographed people in her native Latvia, capturing their lives in homes, courtyards, and streets – places where everyday life unfolds. She returned to the same people over time, working slowly and allowing trust to develop. The resulting photographs are not merely documentary; they preserve places, relationships, and lived experiences from which a sense of belonging emerges. 

Inta Ruka was born in Riga in 1958, where she still lives and works today. She began photographing at a young age, driven by a deep curiosity about the people around her. The camera became her way of encountering the world. Working slowly and with careful focus, Ruka uses a classic Rolleiflex on a tripod and relies solely on available light. Nothing is rushed, nothing romanticized – her photography is direct, intimate, and filled with respect. 

Today, Inta Ruka is an internationally recognized photographer who has held numerous solo exhibitions across Europe. Her work is included in several international museum and private collections. 

Places Called Home, on view at Fotografiska Tallinn from 14 March, brings together two series across more than 80 photographs. Together they form a quiet yet powerful narrative about Latvia during a time of transition and the people who call these places home. 

The series My Country People began in 1983, when Ruka started visiting villages in the Balvi area of northern Latvia. Over nearly two decades she photographed people who had lived through war, occupation, and profound social change. The images capture homes and living environments where electricity was absent and a way of life that was already disappearing. Through these photographs unfolds a story of rural life, work, memories, and a deep sense of belonging. The series represented Latvia at the 1999 Venice Biennale and marked Ruka’s international breakthrough. 

Fotografiska in Tallinn’s Telliskivi Creative City is a contemporary cultural venue where photography, art, and culture meet. Open late into the evening, the house hosts three to four diverse exhibitions at a time. Each year, Fotografiska brings more than ten exhibitions across different photographic genres and artists to Estonian audiences. Ticket prices are flexible and vary by day and time. Children and young people up to 15 (incl.) can visit the exhibitions free of charge, with special educational programs also offered. Fotografiska is a meeting place for the senses: the house features a Michelin Green Star restaurant, café, rooftop garden, bar, and shop. Every week, thought-provoking, engaging, and entertaining events take place here. On Fridays, the museum is open until midnight.

The exhibition’s second series, Amālijas iela 5a (Amālija Street 5a), is a long-term portrait of an early 20th-century apartment building in central Riga. Amid the city life of the mid-2000s, an unexpected world still remained on Amālija Street: gravel roads, modest interiors, and a quiet atmosphere. Over four years, Ruka followed the lives of the building’s residents – nearly one hundred people from different generations whose everyday lives unfolded at the same address. Ruka became part of the residents’ lives – more a friend than an observer. The series consists mainly of portraits, but also of small events and fleeting moments that together create a portrait of what made this place a home. 

Curated by Jessica Jarl, Global Director of Exhibitions at Fotografiska, and Maarja Loorents, Head of Exhibitions at Fotografiska Tallinn, Places Called Home premieres at Fotografiska Tallinn. Alongside the photographs, the exhibition also features the documentary film The Photographer from Riga (2009) by Swedish filmmaker Maud Nycander, offering a close look into Ruka’s life and work. 

“Through portraiture, Inta Ruka seeks to understand and convey each person’s unique identity and life story together with the time and environment in which they live. This is what makes her photographs so distinctive – they bring together documentary truth, authentic environments, and a strong artistic voice,” says Loorents. She adds that thanks to the trust Ruka builds with those she photographs, her images can at times feel like pages from a family photo album. 

The exhibition opens on Friday, 13 March at 18:30 with a film screening and a guided tour led by artist Inta Ruka and curator Jessica Jarl. An additional artist and curator tour will take place on Saturday, 14 March at 13:00 with Inta Ruka and curators Jessica Jarl and Maarja Loorents. 

Places Called Home will be on view at Fotografiska Tallinn until 4 October. Fotografiska Tallinn currently also presents Anton Corbijn’s major exhibition Corbijn, Anton (until 30 April) and Futuristic Ancestry: Warping Matter and Space-time(s) by multimedia artist Josèfa Ntjam (until 3 May).