Portrait research - inspirations (Boris Mikhailov)

Boris Mikhailov

The work of Boris Mikhaivov was a big inspiration for my first shoot. In particular his series of self portraits of his work "I am not I" where he shows him self naked with big freedom and his work "Case history" where he shows the reality of the post-communist Russia. I discover his work in the book "Train your gaze" from Roswell Angier. This book has been very helpfull for most of my researches.

Born in the former Soviet Union, Mykhailov lived and worked for several decades in his hometown of Kharkiv, Ukraine. He received an education as an engineer and started to teach himself photography. Today he is one of the most successful and well-known among the photographers who were already active in the Soviet era. His work combines conceptual art and social documentary photography.                                         

Mykhailov had his first exhibition at the end of the 1960s. After the KGB found nude pictures of his wife he was laid off his job as an engineer and started to work full-time as a photographer.

In “I am not I,” Mikhailov’s body is alone in front of the camera, where he performs a perverse adagio with props ranging from sword to dildo to enema. The setting is bleak and provisional: flooring nailed together before a black velvet backcloth that cannot cover the entire frame. The sad-clown character of Mikhailov contorts himself into positions of resplendent nudity

 His most famous work though is "Case History". It is considered an important part of contemporary art.

There he examines the consequences of the breakdown of the Soviet Union for its people. 

He systematically took pictures of homeless people. 

It shows the situation of people who after the breakdown of the Soviet Union were not able to find their place in a secure social system.

            

What impressed me most about these pictures is that even if they are staged, they give a big sense of reality. 

And reality is what I wanted to show most in this shoot for my project.

              

In a very direct way Mykhailov points out his critique against the "mask of beauty" of the emerging post-Soviet capitalistic way of life.