If you happen to be in Seoul, check out Jo Injeung's exhibition at the Soyi gallery. Jo has captured Jeju island's natural beauties and printed his photographs on a traditional Korean paper. Taking the first opportunity to dive deeper into South Korean photography, in my wall text I discuss the relationships between the country's landscape and contemporary history.
Jeju island is the spot in South Korea that is most remote from the Military Demarcation Line. Yet, it is the Jeju uprising in the spring of 1949 that some regard as the true beginning of the Korean War. The island’s pristine forests and caves sheltered guerrillas, and though appearing untouched, hid the nation’s deep longing for integrity. These feelings resonate with us today

It is out in print. An album of street photographs made in Moscow in the 1950s-early 1960s by Vladimir Stepanov. Highly conservative, Stepanov has long been at the service of Soviet propaganda working as a staff photographer for military defence institutions, and a TV cameraman. These works, however, are his earliest. Made before Stepanov started his career, or at its early stages, they radiate innocence and pure joy. For me, his is a story of artistic honesty corroded, and aesthetic intentions warped by agenda and narrative that are harmful to an individual. The Moscow series is a faded memory of a true photographic talent that would soon transform into Soviet professionalism. It is also a rare visual insight into Moscow city life at a time when this type of imagery was strictly regulated by the state.

The exhibition «Yuri Annenkov. Miron Sherling. Boris Grigoriev. Petersburg — Paris» (KGallery, 25.11.2022 - 12.02.2023) is centered around pre-revolution Russian art scene and features a dozen of images by famous, yet currently forgotten Russian celebrity portraitist working in pictorial photography. Miron Sherling is not just represented by his photographic works; he also appears on two oil portraits, by Yuri Annenkov and Boris Grigoriev respectfully.
This case study provides interesting insight into the relationships between painting and photography of the era.
In an article for the exhibition catalogue, I argue that photography is implicitly present in Annenkov and Grigoriev's portraits of Sherling, through posture and background details. I also suggest that the label "Velasquez in photography", given to Sherling by a fellow artist Isaak Brodsky, has more to say about the social status of celebrity photo-portraiture that about its pictorial merits. Departing from this, I explore the intricate connotations "pictorial" value in photography bears for the bourgeois, middle-class tastes in Russian Empire before the Revolution.

Experiment is a photography gallery that works with emerging talents from Russia. Was pleased to curate the first exhibition they made - available by the link.
As the title states, it is dedicated to the human condition, as seen by young authors, through a wide range of photography-based strategies, ranging from classic documentary to performative practices, and VR. Why do young artists still choose this medium? What potential does it bear for them? How do we interpret humanist value of photography today and how doest it affect the expressive means we employ? I discuss these issues in curator's essay.

Was glad to see it out in English! I contributed to this encyclopedic volume with two entries about Soviet-era women photographers: Galina Sanko (a Second World War photographer who travelled to Paris during the Thaw to make a plastic surgery) and Masha Ivashintsova (a recently discovered name in the Soviet non-conformist documentary photography).

Just a year ago this was possible: a gift of fine vintage prints by some of the greatest American documentary photographers exhibited at the State Hermitage on New Year's Eve. It was acknowledged as the most interesting gift of the outgoing year to the museum. More details here.
This diplomatic achievement is the joint effort of the American Hermitage Foundation and myself, and though recent historic events rendered it fruitless, I am proud of my contribution.