Control Gesture

• Prize
  Bronze in Editorial/Political
• Photographer
  Yana Raaga
• Photo Date
  12.09.2024

It was my first time photographing a presidential visit, unaware of rules such as not capturing the president leaving the car or using flash. In this frame, the layers reveal their own story: the blurred hand of security in the foreground, raised as if to block the lens — a gesture of prohibition and control; the calm presence of the president of Latvia and officials in the middle ground; and, in the distance, photographers documenting the moment. The image becomes a metaphor of power, access, and the boundaries of visibility.

Yana Raaga is a photographer from northeastern Latvia, where silence and distance are part of daily life. Her images are shaped by stillness, time, and a desire to see what exists just outside of attention. She works with both urban and rural space — always drawn to moments that hold contradiction: presence and absence, intimacy and detachment. Her practice is an ongoing conversation with impermanence.