Vaclovas Straukus was born in in 1923 in Požerė, in the Šilalė district of Lithuania. After studying drama at the Vilnius State Drama Theatre and Lithuanian language and literature at Vilnius Teachers’ Training College, he taught high school from 1951 to 1968. He took up photography in the 1960s, after the loss of his voice forced him to give up acting. He became a member of the Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers in 1971. His approach to photography was more personal and less concerned with reportage than some of the better-known members of the Union, such as Atanas Sutkus. The following collections hold photographs by Straukus: Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers, Vilnius; Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius; Museum of photography, Siauliai; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

Straukas’s experience as a teacher is evident in the photographs in the series The Last Bell, many of which feature teenage schoolgirls. Using a wide-angle lens, he fills the frame with his subjects, conveying a sense of immersion in the scene. This visual closeness reinforces the apparent collaboration between the photographer and his subjects, who seem to willingly and playfully pose for the camera. While the settings and school uniforms are very specific to Soviet-era Lithuania, the alternately moody and joyful subjects resonate internationally. This series was exhibited and published in a monograph in Lithuania, and has been reproduced on other occasions.