Portraits documents the first generation of Lithuanians born after the restoration of the country’s independence in 1990. In 2005, Žiūra travelled throughout Lithuania, photographing and filming 428 children, mostly girls, who were then between three and fifteen years old.

The pandemic delayed his plan to continue the project after exactly fifteen years, but in 2021–23 he managed to revisit 250 of his previous models, who now live in Lithuania, Latvia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, the United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Italy, Spain and the US. Migration, within Lithuania and to other countries, is an important sub plot in this series. Only a few of the protagonists remain in the villages and small towns where they were first depicted.

The exhibited version of Portraits comprised two sets of 24 photographic prints and two sets of 203 videos. It further strengthens the connection between Žiūra’s long duration practice and projects such as Paul Almond’s and Michael Apted’s television series Up (UK, started in 1964) or Nicholas Nixon’s photographic series The Brown Sisters (US, started in 1974), which follow the same group of people through many decades.

Yet Žiūra’s use of this method is uniquely trans-disciplinary, involving various still and moving images presented in exhibition halls.