Camera as Passport
12.07.2025–29.12.2025
Ripa Gallery
Ulvis Alberts is an American photographer of Latvian descent, widely known for his portraits of American actors, musicians, public figures, and poker players.
Alberts’ family fled to Ravensburg, Germany during World War II. In 1949, they emigrated from Ravensburg to the United States. Alberts spent his childhood and school years in Tacoma, Washington, and later graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications.
In the late 1960s, Alberts gained recognition when his photographs were published in the Sunday editions of The Seattle Times. His work has also appeared in People Magazine, National Enquirer, and other publications. Interested in rock music, he attended concerts and photographed both established and emerging stars such as Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead and its frontman Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Patti Smith, Tina Turner, and others.
While living and working in Los Angeles, Alberts continued to photograph film celebrities of the 1970s and 1980s, including Steven Spielberg, Christopher Reeve, Jack Lemmon, Nick Nolte, Jack Nicholson, Peter Sellers, the musician Liberace, and many others. In 1977, Alberts was invited to Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas to photograph portraits and candid moments of players at the World Series of Poker. In 1981, he published his book Poker Face, which has since become a collector’s item.
During the Soviet occupation, Alberts first visited Latvia in 1983, when the Rīga Photo Club hosted his first exhibition there. While in Latvia, he met many local photographers and became acquainted with their work. Inspired by what he saw, Alberts went on to organize exhibitions of Latvian photographers in Seattle and Santa Barbara, which received wide coverage in photographic art publications. In interviews, Alberts spoke candidly about the difficult conditions faced by photographers in the Soviet Union — the shortage of materials and equipment, and the challenges of daily life. These articles provoked a negative reaction in the Latvian cultural establishment and even drew the attention of the KGB.
During his visits to Latvia, Alberts met and photographed many well-known cultural figures, including Imants Ziedonis, Kurts Fridrihsons, Juris Podnieks, Igo Fomins, and Regīna Pozovolska, a model from the Riga Modeling Agency, as well as the contrasting urban environment around them. Thanks to Alberts’s persistence and connections, in 1985 Riga hosted an exhibition of works by the world-renowned photographer and former Rigan Philippe Halsman.
In 1997, Alberts began his photo project Riga Young. In 2001, two exhibitions of his work were held in Riga: Hollywood Years — a tribute to his father, Uga Alberts — and Riga Young, dedicated to film director Juris Podnieks. In 2004, Alberts donated his collection of photography books to the Janis Rozentāls Riga Art High School. In 2006, he published his second book, Poker Face 2, which remains highly popular among poker players around the world.
Since 2009, Alberts has collaborated with the Birkenfelds Gallery and its owner Toms Zvirbulis. His work has gained increasing recognition in Latvia, and the gallery has organized international exhibitions of his photography. Alberts’s works are held in both private and museum collections in Latvia and abroad.
In the context of world photography, Ulvis Alberts’s works stand as a significant archive of creative personalities and historic moments.
