Old food store signs

Both houses still host old food store signs from Soviet times. First one is located on Bauskas street, the other on Līvciema street in Ziepniekkalns in Riga.
All photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Gailezers Hospital

Gaiļezers hospital (aka Hospital No. 7) was build in 1979 and at that time it was the most modern hospital in Latvia. Located in Mežciems suburb in Eastern side of Riga, Gaiļezers is probably one of a few major public institutions that has survived all this time without significant renovation works. Besides, it still hosts an underground shelter that could have been used as a hideaway from a possible nuclear bomb attack during the Cold War times.
All photos (c) Arnis Balcus

Welcome

After having spread my everyday photos all around community websites, such as Flickr, Panoramio, Facebook and Draugiem.lv, I have decided to go on by organizing them in a single photo blog format. Recently I am working on a new project about my native country Latvia so for a research purposes I am taking photos almost every day. Here I want to display my findings because the things that interest me are very often taken for granted and passed away unnoticed. These are little things that one day will disappear, for instance, architecture and its elements that remind of Soviet times or construction sites that come and go. But I want to capture them to remember as we start to value things once they are not present.
Besides that I want to offer photos of my travels as well as Latvia-related photos from other resources (artists, archives, websites) that have fascinated me.