Strenči photographic workshop glass plate collection

The Latvian Museum of Photography has a unique collection of 13,000 glass plate negatives from the Strenči photographic workshop, acquired in the summer of 2004 with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the real estate company Latio. The collection includes plates taken between 1920 and 1950, while the photographic workshop itself continued its work until 1970. Photographers such as Dāvis Spunde, Jānis Ziemeļnieks, his sister Paulīne Kraukle, and his brother Konrāds Krauklis worked in the studio.

The collection of glass plates from the Strenči Photographic Workshop is one of the largest covering such a wide period of time. It serves as an important documentary record of life, traditions, and work in the Strenči region. From 1909 onwards, the founder of the Strenči workshop, photographer Dāvis Spunde, and his apprentices took a considerable number of portraits of Strenči residents and captured various events in and around the town—such as construction, electrification, flood recovery, timber rafting, and farmers’ work. The collection also includes charming scenes of everyday life, which captivate every researcher with their spontaneous details, playfulness, and unstaged poses and emotions.

On 14 October 2021, the Assembly of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO decided to include the Strenči Photographic Workshop Glass Plate Collection in the Latvian National Register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.