Abstract
In the article, we advance the notion of an affective atmosphere for analyzing the works of
art by two contemporary Latvian photographers—Aija Bley (b. 1967) and Arnis Balčus
(b. 1978). The spatial relations of bodies and environments and the photographed sub-
jects’ facial expressions and postures negotiate a sense of postsocialist affectivity that we
describe as forgetful and drowsy. In the selected images, the affective atmospheres enact
the ambiguities of the Soviet legacies, along with the challenges of neoliberal rationality
affecting today’s Latvian society. . . By claiming that affective moods are conditioned by the relations of power (colonial pasts and neoliberal futures), we expand the idea of personal being political, offering this feminist mantra a visceral reading (p. 58).