Born in the United States to Baltic refugees, Krista Svalbonas’ complicated identity permeates her photography. Dual ties to Latvia and the United States, the languages she spoke growing up, and her relationship to architecture's psychological imprint on home and dislocation are the driving force behind her work.

Krista Svalbonas uses intricate techniques to reference architecture and design movements as they affect and reflect culture, struggle, and totalitarian rule. Her latest series, What Remains overlays laser-cut, traditional Baltic textile designs atop typological black and white photographs of buildings in Soviet-occupied Baltic cities. For Svalbonas, this fusion of cold structures with a nod to folk art and craft is a symbolic "counterpoint to Soviet-era architecture and the memory of its totalitarian agenda."

As conversations around cultural diaspora and displacement take center stage, Svalbonas' work is increasingly relevant and worth exploring. After having the pleasure of reviewing her work at Denver's Month of Photography Portfolio Reviews and including her in Humble's Diaspora Studies exhibition with The Curated Fridge, we caught up to discuss the many angles of her work.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Krista Svalbonas