Paulius NORMANTAS (1948. 06. 08 – 2016. 01. 07) – Lietuvos keliautojas orientalistas, fotografas, etnografas, poetas

Abstract

P aulius Mormantas was born in Kalniškės (Akmenė district). In 1974, he graduated from Vilnius University. Since 1983, he is a member of the Union of the Lithuanian Art Photographers. Also he is a member of the Union of the Hungarian Art Photographers, the Lithuanian Journalist Union, and the International Journalist Union as well as a member of the Hungarian Art Foundation and academic of Hungarian Academy of Arts. Along with Algimantas Švėgžda and Jurga Ivanauskaitė, Paulius Normantas is a prominent figure of the tiny Lithuania culture characterized by its maximalist humanistic aspirations-something not true of the cultures of big nations. The cycles of Normantas's photos perpetuate the essential life moments of various ethnic groups of Tibet, Nepal, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Igarka. The photos are highly valuable not only as the artistic expression of personal experience but also they are important as ethnographic and artistic documents. Perhaps the most valuable are those photos which show the traces of now vanishing exotic cultures reminding the world of the great losses. But, unfortunately, so far, the significance of Normantas's thirty years of work is not adequately appreciated.