Meeting with photographer and collector Slava Baranov in the gallery of classical photography. Is it worth doing photography for free - Slava Baranov talks about himself Tell us why you chose New York as the object for your photos

04.06.2020

The CENTRAL PARK exposition is a special view of an intellectual photographer on the modern life of one of the largest economic and political centers of the world. From the first picture, the author places the viewer in the midst of this mysterious and - the photographer is sure - not fully explored geographical place. Even an old-timer of Manhattan, who stopped by Central Park for lunch, every time seems to get here for the first time, discovering new nooks and crannies, whole seas and oceans of sensations - not so much in the external environment, but in the internal one, plunging into his own momentary memories, fears, dreams, hope.

In Slava Baranov's project, New York is quite a Shakespearean city in terms of the passions and scope of the scenery. The symbol "city-jungle" has already become archaic. Among the megacities of the world, New York with its Central Park is a traditional symbol of the jungle of the current civilization. It is the center of New York, its core.

The exhibition will include more than fifty black-and-white photographs made using the technique of silver-gelatin printing, followed by applying the texts of William Shakespeare's sonnets. It is important to emphasize that all photographs are copyright and exist in a single copy.

The refined intellectual Slava Baranov began as a poet, but became seriously interested in the art of photography in the mid-90s - at the time of the devaluation of many values, including the poetic word. However, the techniques of creative technology developed by previous literary experience turned out to be useful in the new field as well. Baranov could not and, apparently, did not want to approach the display of an object on a plane as a self-sufficient game graphic forms and tones. The objects in his compositions exist primarily in their culturological meanings; his associations form a complex semantic interweaving, which can even be defined as a kind of text - sometimes rhyming, if you look closely.

“The synthesis of text and image relates the search for Baranov to the well-known “photographic” experiments of El Lissitzky, A. Rodchenko and V. Stepanova. At the same time, the author never puts forward the text to a dominant position, but in the patterned arabesques of the drawing, leaving the text to function as a harsh thread that stitches individual fragments into a powerful epic canvas. On it, even modern cities look like an intricate text filled with hidden meaning. The images include Shakespearean lines in the original language. In the photographs of the Central Park series, the text becomes the universal formula of the crowd and its general cry or silence, if the crowd, as in the photographs, is silent. The text balances the graphic drawing, introducing a symbolic element of three-dimensionality. Together they form something more than just text and a picture. Here we are dealing with a visual-verbal form that is wider and more interesting than the original source,” notes American critic Alise Hanse.

With what territory is the work of Slava Baranov, according to critics of photography, it is impossible to get confused: his relationship with time is based on the photographer's recognition of the idea of eternity. He explores this idea, finding new objects, experimenting with technique, realizing the need for slow and careful movement, says art critic Irina Chmyreva. According to her, in today's global cultural space, it is possible to define the photographer Slava Baranov as emerging artists: a discovery photographer, a rising star photographer, a Persona photographer, with their own vision and direction, different from the mainstream of the moment.

“Photography is a ruthless thing,” says Slava Baranov himself. – Aligning living and non-living things with its immobility, it brings, to use Marxist terminology, a new product to the consumer market – the possibility of a meaningful life. It is impossible to forget the unnecessary, to correct the irreparable. Yes, and civilization, it seems to me, in recent decades, in obedience to self-preservation, wants to return mechanical functions to the image, getting confused in the wilds of sign systems.

Reference:

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Baranov graduated from the Literary Institute. A.M. Gorky (Moscow), is now a member of creative unions: IFA, ICOM, CXR. A freelance artist, he collaborates with Russian and European museums, is engaged in the examination and formation of photographic collections. Takes part in ethnographic expeditions. Lives in St. Petersburg. Works are presented in museums and galleries of Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Riga, as well as China, France, England, the Netherlands. Lives in Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg.

From May 11 to June 25, the Classical Photography Gallery will host an exhibition of photographer Slava Baranov CENTRAL PARK.

The refined intellectual Slava Baranov began as a poet, but became seriously interested in the art of photography in the mid-90s - at the time of the devaluation of many values, including the poetic word. However, the techniques of creative technology developed by previous literary experience turned out to be useful in the new field as well. Baranov could not and, apparently, did not want to approach the display of an object on a plane as a self-sufficient game of graphic forms and tones. The objects in his compositions exist primarily in their culturological meanings; his associations form a complex semantic interweaving, which can even be defined as a kind of text - sometimes rhyming, if you look closely.

Reference: Vyacheslav Ivanovich Baranov graduated from the Literary Institute. A.M. Gorky (Moscow), is now a member of creative unions: IFA, ICOM, CXR. A freelance artist, he collaborates with Russian and European museums, is engaged in the examination and formation of photographic collections. Takes part in ethnographic expeditions. Lives in St. Petersburg. Works are presented in museums and galleries of Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Riga, as well as China, France, England, the Netherlands. Lives in Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg.

- Slava, tell us how the photo project appeared?

As always, completely by accident (smiles). I started shooting Manhattan, and whoever did not shoot it - students, schoolchildren, almost every baby with a smartphone. And then I came up with this method - I translate all the images into a negative and already work with it. But it seemed to me that something was missing ... And I decided to add Shakespeare's sonnets in English - the original language.

From the Fairy tale of kings series

- Is it the sonnets?

Yes. When sonnets are in translation, they are meaningless. There is a very complex scheme of interaction of words inside, it is almost a linguistic charade. Sonnets are very beautiful in their sound. The combination of photography and text causes an interesting reaction from experts. Last year, for example, there was the Year of Shakespeare in the USA. I ended up in Hollywood, they looked there and said - so this is a comic book! I was very surprised - what, I say, a comic? And they say that they are in a deep crisis of the genre, and maybe an intellectual project made in the comics genre is a hope for some kind of light... And I made a big project for them, 120 works are approximately the same as those presented here at the exhibition, but with an emphasis on Hollywood schemes.

- What about the Central park project?

In New York, I continued this theme. Only here each photo is a complete work, complete in itself. In addition, the social orientation has changed - to a more mass audience. In the latest photos of the Central park series, in addition to the lyrical narrative, there are fights, and prostitutes, and robberies - all the ins and outs of the park, flip side its nightlife.

- So this is not that beautiful park with perfect lawns, as we used to see in the movies?

Yes, but it's only like that during the day. When I first came there late at night to shoot, the police did not want to let me in - it's very dangerous, two murders are committed in the park every week. But I immediately reassured them, I said: “Well, what are you, I walked in Shevchenko Park in Odessa at night, like at home! What is your Central park to me ... "

From the series «perlustration»

- So what do Shakespeare's sonnets and gangs of New York have in common?

The fact of the matter is that Shakespeare's text structurally fits perfectly, in its essence, into the modern depiction of human passions. New York is a very diverse city, in which passions of all conceivable stripes boil. Everything that happens between people is the semantic code of Shakespeare! And in this sense, Central park is not an accidental name. In the park itself there is a Shakespearean alley - with sculptures, benches where dates are arranged: during the day, love, at night - business ... But the very technique of combining photos with text is not a novelty. All the classics of Russian photography experimented with text - Rodchenko, Lissitzky, etc... But everyone did it differently, and the tasks were set ambiguously. The genre of book illustration is also about this; Basically, it's a non-expanded comic book format.

From the Last Romans series (Gelatin silver print)

- What is the idea of combining photography and text?

By and large, none. Because each photograph is self-sufficient in nature and does not need textual support, it is in itself an informational symbol, a restructured text. After all, look, literally everything that surrounds us in life is a text, we just either read or do not read these hieroglyphs in an incomprehensible language. Even a glass of water, in my opinion, is also a text, it contains so much sacred meaning. And a photograph is in itself a text based on atmospheric light, a very powerful symbol, perceived both by the mind, and visually, and intuitively. Roughly speaking, "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was the Light."

From the Apologia fra Filippo series

- In addition, you use only the manual method of printing...

When a photograph is printed by hand, there is physical light in the image itself in its natural form. Only when shooting on film - the light hits the silver crystals and stays there forever. Chemical reactions take place in the print, but the light remains there as long as the photograph exists. Light lives in this photo. And if you turn it off indoors, the light will begin to come from the photo itself. AT digital photography this does not happen, there is only an imitation of speech with gestures. A completely different language, more understandable. And I enjoy working with live light. I am pleased to know that even in the photographs of grandparents, who were taken in the last century, there is the same atmospheric light that was caught at the moment of shooting.

- And what kind of combinations do you have in the photo - old photographs, parts of the human body, insects?

These combinations are a simple collage. Reflections on life and death, for we are all in the same plight. This is an attempt to include in the photograph everything that happens at the moment when the picture is taken. To understand what happens during the shooting - what I thought, what I remembered. It's more of an internal state than an external one. And put in the photo everything that was in the head of the photographer during the shooting. A kind of concentration of the moment. The most important moment, which takes all life. And this, in short, I tried to display in the endless photo series of Central park.

- Thanks for the conversation!

Mutually.

Contact Information

Telephone: +7 495 510 7713

Address: Moscow, Savvinskaya embankment, 23 building 1

Opening hours and days: Wednesday-Sunday: 12:00 - 21:00

On Saturday, May 28, at 18.00 in the Gallery of Classical Photography there will be a meeting with famous photographer from St. Petersburg by Slava Baranov.

The meeting will touch upon the centralization of the art market and its peripheral opportunities. In addition, Baranov will talk about the examination of photographs, storage hygiene and the main causes of damage to photographs. Participants of the meeting will learn how to determine the age of photographs, and will also be able to ask questions that interest them.

Slava Baranov is a freelance artist who collaborates with Russian and European museums, and is also involved in the examination and formation of photographic collections. Baranov began his creative way As a poet, he graduated from the Literary Institute. A.M. Gorky in Moscow, and now is a member of such creative unions as ICOM, IFA, CXR. He began to seriously engage in photography in the mid-90s, while previous literary experience helped him take a fresh look at photographic art. From May 12 to June 25, the Gallery of Classical Photography hosts an exhibition of Baranov's works Central park, which is a free look at the modern life of New York by an intellectual photographer.

Photographer's official website: http://www.slavabaranov.com/

Entrance to the meeting with tickets to the gallery.

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1 How did you get started, your first cameras?

I became a professional photographer in the late 90s, when such monsters of the Soviet era as the Union of Artists and the Union of Writers of the USSR, which more or less provided financial support to their members, practically collapsed. There was nothing to live on. The intelligentsia was starving, rapidly exchanging accumulated supplies for food ...

Central Park 28. Gelatin silver print. Size 40x50cm. Edition 10. 2014 © Slava Baranov

I brought a once expensive device, CONTAX RTS, to the commission, but on the way I met a friend - he photographed married couples on the street. Seeing my camera, he immediately offered cooperation. A week later, I began to make good money, and out of boredom I shoot staged format still lifes. To my surprise, the black-and-white still lifes sold out well. Then there was a boom in artistic photography in the country. All photographers called themselves photo artists. I also joined the Union of Photographers of Russia, made several exhibitions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, China. And finally I bought a SONTAX 645 AF for further work, with two Carl Zeiss T * lenses. I use this camera to this day, practically not finding any shortcomings in it, because it is set up to take high-quality pictures, not taken in haste ...

Central Park 4 Gelatin silver print. Size 40x50cm. Edition 10. 2014 © Slava Baranov

Apologia fra Filippo 12. Gelatin silver print. Size 40x50cm. Edition 20. 2002 © Slava Baranov

Petersburg's origin 25. Gelatin silver print. Size 30x40cm. Edition 10. 2010 © Slava Baranov

2 Most memorable episode or event?

Moscow. Column Hall of the House of the Unions. Yeltsin is speaking. I was contracted to report by a reputable newspaper. I shoot without a tripod and flash, slowly walking up the aisle to the podium, getting closer and closer. And every time I raised the camera, Yeltsin fell silent and smiled solemnly. Near the third row, someone tugged at my jacket: “Take me off too…” A crowd gathered. Yeltsin hesitated and shouted loudly; "It is announced, a break, for a photo shoot ..."

Petersburg's origin 26. Gelatin silver print. Size 30x40cm. Edition 10. 2010 © Slava Baranov

Apologia fra Filippo 8. Gelatin silver print. Size 40x50cm. Edition 10. 2002 © Slava Baranov

3 What do you pay attention to while working?

Imperceptibly, photography ceased to be perceived as work. The rest of the life, ceased to be personal. Even in a dream, you notice spatial compositions that are interesting for a new picture. In addition, a film format camera teaches well-thought-out actions, because it is strictly limited by the number of frames. It's not that I feel sorry for the film, I just want to build a harmonic photo series within just ten frames. So that nothing superfluous gets into the creative plan. This greatly simplifies life and saves time, which, unlike images in photographs, never stops, under any circumstances.

4 Do you have a treasured talisman?

Of course they are old family photos. My relatives live there, they live their own inner independent life, nothing like mine. I enjoy watching them. The photographs were made with high quality by the great masters of the 19th century, Dmitriev, Karelin, Kozlov, etc. Knowing the photo processes, I clearly see the light of that time, still wandering through the labyrinths of the gelatin-silver layer, it will wander there forever.

5 What do you like to photograph the most?

6 What are your plans for the future?

The absence of all sorts of plans, there is the most reasonable plan for the future, as practice suggests, this random for me, but very exciting profession. I emphasize - professions, because doing photography on an industrial scale for free and for yourself is sad, pointless and harmful.