Algimantas Kezys

b. 1928 — d. 2015

Algimantas Kezys trained as a Jesuit priest in his birth country, Lithuania, before becoming a photographer. He developed a quasi-invented field that he came to call “design-oriented documentary photography,” which emphasized pattern and line in photographs that represented subjects from life. Kezys moved to the United States in 1950, settling in Chicago. He exhibited his photographs in local venues such as the Lithuanian Youth Center in Chicago and published them in books on a wide range of topics, including religious rites and celebrations, world’s fairs [https://artic-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01ARTIC_ALMA2135164140003801&context=L&vid=01ARTIC&search_scope=everything&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US], and scenes in Chicago [https://artic-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01ARTIC_ALMA2131216050003801&context=L&vid=01ARTIC&search_scope=everything&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US] and Lithuania [https://artic-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01ARTIC_ALMA2122247780003801&context=L&vid=01ARTIC&search_scope=everything&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US]. Later in his career he also operated a gallery that promoted the work of other Lithuanian artists. Kezys’s first museum exhibition [https://archive.artic.edu/edwards/exhibitions/#1965]—held at the Art Institute in 1965—included his earlier, design-oriented works along with images made at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.