Alexey Titarenko

I watched a documentary about Alexey Titarenko which was recommended to me by a photographer who is doing a bit of mentoring for/with me.  I am writing about Titarenko straight away as I was so blown away by his work.  I wanted to buy yet another book but they are over £200 so I will need to start saving up, I think.

He is a Russian photographer now living in New York who began taking photographs when he was 8 years old.  He studied fine art at the Department of Cinematic and Photographic Art at Leningrad's Institute of Culture and is known especially for his work with long exposures, which I am so interested in.  He is heavily influenced by the music of Shostakovitch - I know nothing about classical music but I have liked Shostakovich for a very long time and when I look at Titarenko's pictures I can just imagine hearing it, especially in the series The City of Shadows where grey figures blur into one another and seem to swarm heavily through the streets of St. Petersburg and up the steps of authoritarian looking buildings.

According to Wikipedia he is also influenced by the Dada movement which means so much to me. (when I left drama school the first job I had was a re-enactment of the Dada Cabaret which I think we did at the Contact Theatre in Manchester and I loved being in it, and was delighted to find myself looking at Dada again when I went on a study visit to see the Hannah Hoch exhibition in London earlier this year).  Another influence mentioned is Malevich which I have been to see twice at The Tate Modern and will need to return again to as I went both times with a different child, one of whom kept saying, 'He's scary, Mummy.  I want to go home!" and the other seemed to have been given a dose of very strong coffee as we entered and hurried through in about ten minutes saying, "Look at all the movement in his pictures, Mummy.  They're optical illusions!" Which is why I have not yet written about that gallery visit.

It was very interesting to see in the documentary how Titarenko manipulates his images not only in-camera by using very long exposures and also moving his camera to create a flimsy light effect, but also in the real-life darkroom - just like Lillian Bassman and Wynn Bullock whom I have written about in this blog.  He too uses bleach and solarisation, exposing his images to light as he develops them to add to the ghostly effect he is after.

I was also interested to see him 'hunting' for people and scenes to photograph.  This poor old lady although seemingly oblivious was photographed several times as she wandered through the streets, Titarenko following with his tripod and Hasselblad.  This stalking for subjects is something I have such trouble with myself but his finished photograph was really very beautiful and he seems in such another world as he does it.

He talks about how his photographs communicate all the sorrow and horror of what the Russian people have been through throughout their violent and sometimes horrifically brutal history.  Although he was based mainly in St. Petersburg and the photographs in the film are on the whole taken there he says they represent all of Russia.  He uses long exposure as he is trying to capture so much of Russian history as well as present in one photograph or image and this process of allowing time to be absorbed slowly onto the film rather than a fraction of a moment creates some very powerful art.

Titarenko also discusses how he came to realise that you could do things with photography that communicated something immensely powerful and creative, a reality that is transformed in some way, rather than just click and make an accurate representation of the scene.  This was such a good thing for me to hear at this particular moment when I am feeling full of doubts and horribly exposed!

I really want to know more about his work.  I have to say I felt emotional but also excited seeing it.  Not only are his photographs incredibly moving and evocative, it is also an immensely strong indication for me to stick with where I'm going - it's worth pursuing and persevering.  But perhaps I have quite a long way to go!

Links
Website
Wikipedia
The ASC: Streetwise blog (fantastic essay)