Vytautas Stanionis

Stanionis married soon after the war, both working as an accountant and being treated in the hospital, and taking photographs in his spare time.

When in 1946 the new internal Soviet passports required photographs of their bearers, Stanionis was authorized to take them.

A white sheet was a sufficient backdrop, and Stanionis would often photograph two people together in order to reduce costs.

In 1947 he got a job in a regional newspaper, and was a popular photographer, although his work was hindered by his poor health.

Photographs recently exhibited and republished show people more or less stiffly standing or sitting for photographs they had requested, plus Soviet rallies and rituals (some with floats eerily reminiscent of demonstrations of US civic pride), the river Nemunas (particularly in flood), and people unselfconsciously going about their business.