Beauty Contest, Kazan, 1991 Heritage of an Empire ("My Doomed Country") Russia photographed by Oleg Klimov, 1989 - 2004 Klimov witnessed the end of the Soviet regime. For him, that period more or less conincided with the last day of Andrei Skharov's life, the rise of Boris Jeltsin, the beginning of the war in Chechnya and the failed coups d'état in the early '90s. But he considers his innumerable encounters with his countrymen and women at least equally important. On assignment in all corners of the slowly crumbling empire, he took their portraits: youths in Moscow, the faithful on pilgrimages, life along the Volga. Klimov's personal development as a photographer also coincides with the Perestroika and Glasnost of the late '80s, the fall of the Soviet Union and the reformations fo the country following upon this. He has decided views about the role of photography in his life: above all else, the camera is a means in his search for reality - his own reality, that is. With the camera, he continually refines his own picture of humanity. On site, his emotions determine the composition and frame of the image, but it is only when selecting the negatives in the darkroom that he takes a conscious standpoint, and begins the true creative process that has formed the basis for this exceptional oeuvre. Exhibition: December 11 - February 27, 2005 Opening hours: Tu - Su 11 - 17 h (closed on Monday) Huis Marseille Foundation for Photography Keizersgracht 401 NL-1016 EK Amsterdam Telephone +31 20 531 89 89 Fax +31 20 531 89 88 Email info@huismarseille.nl www.huismarseille.nl |
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