Exploring the Photographs of Zenta Dzividzinska
An interactive research interface for exploring a digitized archive of black-and-white photographs from the 1960s-1970s using visual search, machine learning, and computational analysis.
Zenta Photo Explorer is a web application developed for the interactive exploration of a photographic collection. It forms part of an ongoing research project on the photographic archive of Latvian artist and photographer Zenta Dzividzinska, acquired by the National Library of Latvia in 2021.
The dataset consists of 5,334 digitized negatives from 6×6 and 35 mm film. To support discovery, search, and visual analysis, the images have been processed using a range of artificial intelligence and computer vision techniques, including image embeddings, automated descriptive tagging, and multimodal language models.
The application offers a free-form natural-language search interface (Home Search), a browser of thematic tags assigned to the collection (Tags), and a multi-query comparison interface (Multi-Query View) that enables users to examine themes across the dataset through a variety of visualizations. The Multi-Query View includes sample prompt presets, such as angles, distances, moods, and people, while also allowing users to define their own categories and tags.
A pre-print pdf of the research paper describing the project is available: Application of Multimodal AI in Classifying and Researching Zenta Dzividzinska’s Photo Archive.
The development of Zenta Photo Explorer was funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia through the project “Cultural and Creative Ecosystem of Latvia as a Resource of Resilience and Sustainability” (CERS, No. VPP-MM-LKRVA-2023/1-0001), implemented within the State Research Programme “Latvian Culture – a Resource for National Development” (2023–2026). The State Research Programme is administered by the Latvian Council of Science.
For further information about the Zenta Photo explorer contact digital research group at the National Library of Latvia: dh@lnb.lv
The photographs of Zenta Dzividzinska are protected by copyright. To request permission to reproduce images or to obtain higher-resolution files for publication purposes, please contact Līga Goldberga, Art Collection Expert at the Art and Music Centre of the National Library of Latvia: liga.goldberga@lnb.lv.