Veronika Šleivytė was born on 6 December 1906 in the village of Antašava, then of the Russian Empire, and now of the district of Kupiškis, in Lithuania, into a family of a total of 14 children[1] to parents who were landless farmers.
"[1] In 2022, a three-month, extensive retrospective of her work was exhibited at the National Museum of Art, with many originals and prints of yet unseen negatives been staged for the first time.
[3] Šleivytė was active in the struggle of female emancipation in then-heavily patriarchal Lithuania and particularly strove for women artists' opportunities to exhibit their work.
[4] Since 2000, the Kupiškis Museum of Ethnography organizes a yearly competition of photography among schoolchildren, with the award named after Vėra Šleivytė, with funds allocated through the artist's will for "the development of young talents."
For art historian Agnė Narušytė, Šleivytė was the first Lithuanian to photograph lesbian love, turning her life into a "constant performance in front of the camera."