OTEF´25 – PHOTOVILLE NEW YORK CITY

On the Edge Fest — Launched in Tallinn in 2022, the festival began with projects focused on the Ukrainian frontline and aesthetic documentary photography. Since then, it has expanded to explore hidden societal tensions and is becoming increasingly international in scope.

In 2025, On the Edge Fest will participate in New York City renowned photography festival, Photoville, presenting the project “Baltic Way as Soft Resistance.” This work delves into the lasting legacy of peaceful protest in the Baltic region, offering a powerful reflection on unity, collective memory, and nonviolent resistance as a cultural force.

The broader exhibition reveals geopolitical, psychological, and identity-based anxieties shaped by ongoing uncertainty in neighboring regions. It portrays the surreal decay of everyday life in places often overlooked by the world. Through compelling visual narratives, the festival raises awareness and invites deep self-reflection—reminding us that freedom and dignity are fundamental to any society that values its cultural heritage and strives for an independent future, even in the face of aggressors cloaked in the rhetoric of a shared past.

The focus of the exhibition is on the 6 Baltic authors which have been curated by Temuri Khvingia and Andrii Mur

“BALTIC WAY AS SOFT RESISTANCE” AT PHOTOVILLE FESTIVAL
JUNE 7-22, 2025 NEW YORK CITY

LOCATION 2025

PHOTOVILLE NEW YORK JUNE 7-22, 2025

Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza
1 Water St , Brooklyn, NY 11201

AUTHORS

Aivars Liepiņš (1953)
is a Latvian photographer who learned the basics of photography on his own, but has also studied at the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Philology, University of Latvia. He has worked as a photographer for various press publications, was one of the founders of a photo-news agency and co-authored many books and albums.

Photographs by Aivars Liepiņš have been published in Latvia and in various publications abroad, exhibited in the Latvian National Art Museum and the Latvian Museum of Photography, among others.

Vytautas Daraškevičius (b. 1946)
is a Lithuanian photographer and member of the Lithuanian Association of Photographers, who also worked at the Electrographic Research Institute. His photographic archive covers more than half a century of Lithuanian cultural heritage. It is this heritage that he considers to be a sign of the uniqueness of each nation and each people, and he not only participates in national celebrations as a photographer of the day, but also sings and dances along.

Mati Hiis (b. 1946)
is Estonian photographer, he has been photographer since age 7, when he acquired his first Smena. Since 1973, he has been a correspondent for the Õhtuleht newspaper.

His Works have been displayed in Germany, Finland, and Estonia
Awards from domestic and international photo contests since 1962. Won Estonia’s Best Sports Photo award in 2003 and 2007, and Best Nature Photo award in 2004.

Peeter Langovits (b. 1948)
is Estonian photographer, graduated from the Tallinn Polytechnic Institute, Faculty of Chemistry, worked as an engineer at the Estonian Telegraph Agency and Postimees before pursuing a photography career. Has organized nearly 50 personal exhibitions both at home and abroad. Photographs have been distributed by news agencies such as TASS , AP, Pressfoto, Scanpix Baltics, etc.

This peaceful mass demonstration marked the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – a secret agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany that led to the occupation and loss of independence of the Baltic states. In the photo, demonstrators hold placards combining the swastika and the hammer-and-sickle – symbols of two totalitarian regimes. By uniting these emblems, protesters condemned both Nazi and Soviet oppression and highlighted the similar consequences both regimes inflicted on their nations.