My passion in art is mostly connected to old archaic ruins which I photograph and paint. This story began when I first heard about work of German Romantic painter - Caspar David Friedrich (1774 – 1840). His somber paintings with Gothic ruins, visited by sorrowful pilgrims and strangers, made a great impression on me. I felt as he was inviting me to continue his work, but transforming paintings into a photographic images, what seemed an impressive idea to me. Later, I learned about work of a British photographer Roger Fenton (1819 – 1869), who photographed Gothic ruins on large-format camera using the outstanding light conditions and arranging people standing or sitting by destroyed buildings, in melancholic romantic plot. So, the work of these two artists was a starting point of my journey to the ancient ruined walls and their dramatic story.
The theme of ruins absorbed me so deeply that I decided to dedicate a large part of my work to this subject. I’m working on it for several years already. Why am I doing it? Firstly, I believe that all of these objects are an important part of our cultural heritage, which we tend to put slowly out of our memory. Forever. But them who forget their past, won’t be able to understand what they are in a present and what they will become in future. Secondly, I simply love the ruins, their incompleteness, innuendo, their sublime isolation. I see them as portals which connect us to the past and to the future. To me, they are neither alive nor dead objects, but they tell us about life and death.
Bio
I was born in 1978 in Tashkent (capital of Uzbekistan republic) where I lived first 12 years of my life. After the collapse of Soviet Union, I moved to Kaliningrad (Russia). In 2000 I came to Belgium and I still live there. From 2008 to 2013 I graduated to KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) in Ghent (Belgium) where I followed my photography education. In 2013, I received title of Master of Arts. Now I work on my personal projects and take part in art exhibitions and art shows. Most of my projects are documentary and architecture art photography. I work on my projects mainly in West Europe and Russia.