"Auftakt" is the upward stroke made by conductor, a gesture, that comes in the moment when music does not begin to sound yet. It's a gesture made in silence, but combining full information about time of performance, tempo and semantic fullness of music, it's stroke and character of the sound.

Auftakt is the instantly disappearing fragment of time that always dissolves in it's own obvious ephemerality. A moment that exist invisibly at our life and in one time includes in itself paradoxical opposite feelings, like silence and calmness that can be felt in one second before the storm comprises the great anxiety.

The context of time and locations in these photographs is important, but not on a first place - it's not just the image, but the irrational expression of it sates every photo with special atmosphere. However, the most of photographs are taken in Latvia, the Baltic country which is now in strongest economical crisis. This is the visual meditation on everyday's life, taken during 2005-2010, the period of quick changes in country's economics and in thoughts of the people. It was taken using the analogue technic of 35 mm and 120 mm, and also the mobile's phone camera.

According to ancient science, “aether is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere”. The concept of aether was used in several theories to explain several natural phenomena, such as the traveling of light and gravity. In the late 19th century, physicists postulated that aether permeated all throughout space, providing a medium through which light could travel in a vacuum, but evidence for the presence of such a medium was not found.

In this series I also appeal to the search of the “quintessence”, exploring my personal photographic archive, trying to find the purest “fifth element” in the "elusive" and "indecisive" moments of memory. The photographs, like the four terrestrial classical elements described by Aristotel are the subjects to change and move naturally. Aether naturally moves in circles, and has no contrary, or unnatural motion.

"Webcam portraits" is a collection of portraits taken from the screen of computer. The subjects are strangers, that've been encountered in online web chats. In the best case, all we can know about them are their nicknames, that cannot really tell anything about the persons behind them. Internet is an environment that brings everything in the other dimension: people are the same, but they behave different, and our attitude to other people completely differs as well.

In some way, this is the disregard to the traditional quest of quality of contemporary digital photography. Here, the beauty of classical photography, like black tones, blur, etc., has an important part to play. However, the place of grain here is taken by the pixles of the screen, that become an increasingly important part of construction of our daily lives. The pixels not only erase the analogical authenticity of persons photographed, but also leave some space of interpretations of moods to errors and imperfections of the digital flow. "Webcam Portraits" is a series which questions if the Internet based digital technologies are putting the end to traditional photography, or if they are opening new vistas for the image art.

Overwhelming anxiety without any obvious reason and a spontaneous, inadequate reaction to an insignificant irritant are signs characteristic to a panic attack. If it has been experienced, the indicators can be easily recognized in Roman Drits' (1986) photographs. If it has never been experienced, the photographs will probably remind of something else. Panic lovers never listen to the advice to calm down! Pursuant to the obsession of contemporary art to immortalize fleeting impulses, in Drits' works there are no references as to what and why has been portrayed. Yet, the author reveals that the photographs are related to his experience – 'it is my own personal egoistic diary (taking photographs in hiding) about my personal comfort zone, which had to be destroyed', he writes. The change has been caused by moving to another country.

'Experience' is a word that is often used in the annotations of artworks. Experience is what is required in work interviews. Obtaining experience is the most often mentioned motivation for travelling. Then why is it so seldom related to the joy of discovery?

A wish to have experience is similar to the wish to have time. It is not possible to stop the time – it always flies. Experience builds up. It is homogeneous, because it is not possible to move in time. No one can step in another experience as if in a vehicle. In contrary to the opinion of headhunting specialists, experience is nothing valuable. You can't hand it over to someone else. Experience is always traumatic – '...including fear, which has to be overcome, when everything esle undergoes an unexpected change' – writes Drits.

Details that have attracted attention, although there is nothing important there, emerge from a darker periphery. Increased contrast and a grainy image that doesn't allow seeing nuances, are equivalent to panic. In a while, its cause cannot be identified anymore.

Widening of the European Union created an illusion that space has no importance. That there are no borders, no distance and that a place is not significant. The virtual space approves it – yes, yes, you can speak to someone who is miles away, you see his image, you hear his voice. He might be even half-naked – Roman Drits has made a photograph series Webcam Portraits, where his chat partners can be seen. The photographs explode an illusion – the chat partners are ghosts with big heads, wide-opened eyes, with the light cast either from underneath or from the sides, on a never-changing cheap and banal room background. Some time ago such phantoms appeared in expressionists' phantasies.

'Show up!' (word play – the title of the series Paradies stands for a 'paradise' in German, but in Latvian – for a verb 'to show up' in imperative without lengthening marks and exclamation mark) – the author asks the city, where he has arrived and where there is nothing familiar. The city does not respond. It hides behind the bushes and lamps and behind a silent exterior accessible to anyone. Time is necessary for obtaining experience, but as soon as it has passed, the experience will have no meaning.

Many shelves of bookshops are filled with the memoirs of emigrants. The great emigration wave took over Latvia in the beginning of the Second World War. Now old people reveal their experiences in order to incite empathy, but there is rarely anyone to respond. Despite the fact that the stories are full of the feelings of loss, longing for return, disillusionment, and warnings. People don't change. Emigration – although on different terms – is back on the schedule, and to be honest, it is getting on everyone's nerves. Wishing all the best and a bit of sentiment, fake worrying from those who stay behind! Besides, half of the emigrants are immigrant descendants, whose belonging to a particular place cannot be identifies so stricly anymore. Photo stories from workers' villages in the Great Britain show a generally pleasant life – there is no lack of food, drink and yound, beautiful bodies. Celebrities in the USA pose on the rooftops holding coctail glasses and being photographed among other celebrities. The place has no significance, distance has been abolished, and time will be in future. This time only benefits await! A story of success by all means. Valuable experience. Emigrants will definitely return, if not tomorrow, then on the day after tomorrow. If not, they will be happy in their own right. Freedom of choice! Traumas and fear will be overcome, panic will vanish. Or will be erased from memory.