Selected dates:

April 7, 1944

Born in the city of Sarapul (USSR, today the Russian Federation).

Viktor spent his childhood and youth in Latvia. He was interested in radio electronics, and in high school he was a prize winner of city and republican competitions in volleyball, track and field, and speed skating.

1961-1963

Studied at the Faculty of Medicine of the Riga Medical Institute.

1963-1968

Studied at the Vitebsk Medical Institute, completed clinical residency at the Lvov Medical Institute, and advanced training courses in Moscow, Leningrad, and Minsk. Specialization and area of scientific interest: oncomorphology.

1962−1968

During his student years, he created his first photographs, which were later exhibited. Among these works are: "O, tempora! O, mores!", "Portraits of Taisiya Avilova", "Dentist's Inspiration", "Cold Beach", "Connoisseur" and a series of works: "In the Pskov-Pechorsky Monastery", "Trouble", part of the cycle "The Village Through the Eyes of a City Dweller".

1974

He became a member of the Minsk photo club. The head of the photo club, Evgeniy Kozyulya, wrote in 2004: "The philosophy of Viktor Butra's works was formed throughout his entire creative career, starting in 1957, when he took his first photographs. The review "Photography" published in Prague had a great influence on his passion for photography in the early 1960s. The materials published in it provided an opportunity for self-assessment and improvement of creativity. This was also facilitated by joining the Minsk photo club, where an atmosphere of friendly criticism and mutual respect always reigned. As a result, Viktor Butra actually headed the direction in the photo club that can be described as psychological photography ("Dentist's Inspiration", "Tragic Exodus", "On the Water"). This did not prevent him from being a lyricist ("Romashka", "Beech Forest", the series of works "Beach")."

Among the factors that influenced the development of his work, Victor names the poetry of those years, the poems of Robert Rozhdestvensky, Andrei Voznesensky, the films of Tarkovsky and Italian directors.

-

Photographer about his practice:

"Photography has always remained just a hobby. But I still remember the episode that changed my understanding of it. Once we agreed to meet with Kortin, who was already a student at the Riga Polytechnic. We met, and he said: "I still have some things to do in the building, I can do it in half an hour. And you leaf through this in the meantime..." And he brought two or three issues of the Czech "Photography" from the shelf. From the moment I opened these magazines, something turned over in my head, something happened there... Everything was so twisted, tied up... When Kortin returned, I could not tear myself away from them. And when we went out onto the streets of Old Riga, everything around me seemed completely different. I was already looking at the world through the prism of those photographs. This happened in 20-30 minutes."

"If you press the shutter a few seconds earlier or later, you can put your attitude towards the event into the picture. You can emphasize what surprised or excited you."

"I don't have a specific guideline, a set of rules that I would constantly follow. Usually, you don't want to somehow become the culprit of trouble for the person you photographed," he says. "I'm definitely not a photo artist, I have a different method of shooting, a reportage one. I'm an amateur. Another issue is that my works are somewhat poeticized. They are layered with what is received from other spheres and what is not realized at the moment of shooting. But it works. My photographs are not pure reportage, not a blind recording of reality, but they are not staged either. I still wait for my shot, and if it doesn't come together, I don't shoot. Images are born from a combination of events and elements that fall into the lens."

"Many shots were taken with a feeling of coldness along the spine. When on the edge [...] sometimes a plot arises, but then a picture pops up, aha, this has already been filmed. So it's past. There is no point in filming, because it has already been shown before you."