GAIETY IS THE MOST OUTSTANDING FEATURE OF THE SOVIET UNION

...Or so we would be led to believe at any rate, according to our good friend Josef Stalin and the title of the Saatchi's latest exhibition, combining the work of some post-USSR Russian artists together into one show. I visited this show on Thursday 7th February; and I'm pretty sure that the show runs until the beginning of May... so if you haven't seen it yet, it's definitely worth a look.
The photography of Boris Mikhailov and Sergei Vasiliev stood out for me personally; of course, I may be slightly biased, there were some other pretty kickass sculptures / installations but I think these guys are the most relevant to my stuff.

The intimacy of these shots, the unparalleled control that each photographer holds over his subjects lends great power to the images. Mikhailov's section was dominated by "Case History" (1997-98), a selection from a series of over 400 shots, a photojournalistic documentation of the abandoned working class in the city of Kharkov after the dismantling of the Soviet Union 10 years previous. Mikhailov traded hot meals for utter control over his subject, often showing nudity or unusual poses - some of these point out in gruesome detail the physical suffering of these people; often the subjects are undernourished, have severely damaged teeth or various sores on their skin.

Sergei Vasiliev's subjects were rather different however - his photographs document a secret language of tattoos used by Russian Soviet prisoners, a set produced between 1989-93. The interesting thing about these images is that they appear to be isolated shots pulled from a bog-standard tattoo magazine. However as the narrative behind their creation is revealed, the work changes, evolves into a gritty documentation of resistance within the prison system's culture of repression.

This raw, intimate style ties in quite nicely with some of my own work I have been producing recently - I've been trying to unconsciously photograph people I meet or have a connection with. It has been a little difficult working out how best to get candid photos of people without them noticing, although I have found using my phone on silent and without flash can produce some good results. Of course, the fact that I can't use my camera is absolutely killing me, but since the autofocus is buggered, it's just not quick enough to be able to capture those little moments that can be lost to hesitation. I'll put them up on a separate post when I've got some good ones together.

Until then however, I must bid you adieu. Night all.

- Padfoot