Boris Mikhailov (photographer)

Boris Mikhailov (1938 in Kharkov, the Ukraine) is currently the most successful and best-known photo-artist of Eastern Europe.

Life and work

Born in the former Soviet Union he lived and worked for several decades in his hometown Kharkov, Ukraine. He received an education as an engineer and started to teach himself the practice of photography. Today he is one of the most successful and well-known photographers, who already was actively working in soviet times. His work very much is influenced in the means of Concept-Art and Social-Documentary-Photography. At the end of the 1960s he had his first exhibition. After the KGB found nude-pictures of his wife he was set off his job as an engineer and started to full-time work with photography. He shot a series of everyday-life scenes-documentation. His most famous work during this period (1968-1975) was the "Red Serie". In these photographs he mainly used the colour red, to picture people, groups and city-life. Red is the color standing for October Revolution, political Party and the social system of soviet society. It is often said, that within those works critical elements toward the existing political circumstances can be found.

In his work "Klebrigkeit" (1982) he added explaining notes, or he is using diary-like writings. As an important part of contemporary art are considered his works "Case History". Here he examines the consequences of the break down of the Soviet Union for the people living there. Therefore he systematically took pictures of homeless people, who soon started trusting him. More than 500 photographs show the situation of people, who after the break down of the Soviet Union were not able to catch hold in a secured social system. In a very direct way Mikhailov points out his critique against the "mask of beauty" of the uprising post-soviet capitalistic way of life. It's one of the best works found within social documentary photography.

In 2004 Boris Mikhailov exhibited a first series of Berlin. Again his attention is drawn to people living at the edge of society.

elected solo exhibitions

* 2006: Bereznitsky Gallery, Berlin, Moments/Monuments
* 2006: Shugoarts, Tokyo, Yesterday's Sandwich
* 2005: Galerie Ilka Bree, Bordeaux, Butterbrot
* 2005: Centre de la Photographie, Geneve, Look at me I look at Water
* 2004: Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona
* 2004: Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin, In the Street
* 2004: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA
* 2003: Fotomuseum Winterthur, Private Freuden, lastende Langweile, öffentlicher Zerfall - eine Retrospective
* 2002: Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, The Insulted and the Injured
* 2001: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Case History&Heiner Müller Project
* 2001: Saatchi Gallery, London

Literature

*1995 Boris Michaijlov, Stuttgart
*1998 Unfinished Dissertation, Zürich
*2000 Michajlov: The Hasselblad Award 2000
*2003 Eine Retrospktive, Zürich
*2004 Look at me I look at water, Göttingen

Awards

*1997 Albert Renger-Patzsch Buchpreis
*1996 Award of Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation, Switzerland
*2000 Auszeichnung der Hasselblad-Stiftung, Schweden
*2001 Citibank Fotografie-Preis
*2001 Foto-Buchpreis der Krazna-Krausz-Stiftung, London (Kraszna-Krausz Book Award)

External links

* [http://www.bereznitsky-gallery.com/ Bereznitsky Gallery]
* [http://www.fotomuseum.ch/Boris_MIKHAILOV.164.0.html?&L=1 Fotomuseum Winterthur]
* [http://www.minoritenkulturgraz.at/2002_4/Bilderzeitung/Mikhailov1.htm Minoriten Kultu Graz]
* [http://www.shugoarts.com/en/mikhailov.html Shugoarts]
* [http://deutsche-boerse.com/dbag/dispatch/de/kir/gdb_navigation/about_us/30_Art_Collection/40_artists/46_mikhailov?horizontal=page Grupe Deutsche Boerse]
* cite web |publisher= Victoria and Albert Museum
url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/past_exhns/twilight/mikhailov/index.html
title= Boris Mikhailov photographs taken at twilight
work=Photography
accessdate= 2007-08-25