From 13 September to October 26, 2025, the Photography Museum will invite visitors to discover the work of world-renowned British photographer Dorothy Bohm. The opening event for the exhibition “A World Observed” and a meeting with the curators will take place on 23 September at 5:30 p.m. On 28 September, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Richard Shaw’s documentary film “Seeing Daylight: The Photography of Dorothy Bohm” will be shown free of charge at the museum.

Exhibition “A World Observed” by Dorothy Bohm – retrospective of the famous British artist of Litvak origin offers an encounter with a creative vision spanning over six decades and several continents. The exhibition presents black-and-white and color photographs representing different stages of the artist’s career—visually striking and deeply human images capturing people and landscapes in a rapidly changing world.

According to the exhibition’s curator, Monica Bohm-Duchen – “While the human figure in its natural environment remained the central focus of her work and she produced pure, unmanipulated photographs, over time her approach to representation became more painterly and abstract. Dorothy became increasingly interested in spatial and other forms that evoke ambiguity.”

Curators Monica Bohm-Duchen and Gintaras Česonis emphasize that this retrospective in Šiauliai is not only an event of international importance but also a significant gesture of cultural memory. As Gintaras Česonis notes: “Dorothy Bohm’s story is one of emigration, loss, and return—a story we can read through photography. She is most often presented as a figure of British photography, yet her roots lie here, in our land. Therefore, her work inevitably becomes part of our cultural memory as well. Bohm’s photographs are not about monumental events—they are about fragments of everyday life, human gestures, the hidden corners of cities. Such photography, it seems, quietly yet powerfully shapes the real fabric of history. That is why this exhibition in Šiauliai is not just a retrospective—it is also a question: why are artists like her so often written into the canon of other countries rather than into our own narratives? It is an opportunity to reconsider what we regard as part of our photographic history.”

Dorothy Bohm (1924–2023) spent her childhood in the Memel region (now Klaipėda), enjoying a relatively carefree youth. In 1939, when the Nazis occupied Lithuania, the future photographer’s parents decided to send her to Great Britain. There Dorothy studied photography and began working in portrait photography, eventually opening her own studio. Over time, becoming increasingly interested in street photography, she abandoned studio work. Having long photographed mostly in black and white, in the mid-1980s Dorothy used color Kodak film for the first time and never returned to black-and-white photography. Dorothy Bohm’s lifelong dedication to the medium remained unwavering until her passing in London in 2023. Her creative biography includes twenty-five solo exhibitions and more than fifteen monographs. Today, Dorothy Bohm is widely recognized as a distinguished British photographer.

Exhibition curators:

Monica Bohm-Duchen
Gintaras Česonis

Organiser of the exhibition:

The division of Šiauliai Aušra Museum – The Photography Museum
Kaunas Photography Gallery

Communication designer: Darius Linkevičius