The Last Romans at the Gallery of Classical Photography

In the Gallery of Classical Photography at the exhibition “PhototOP. Still Life 2022” continues the exhibition of a prominent representative of the St. Petersburg romantic spirit of Slava Baranov.

The work of the intellectual photographer is presented in three series. In the paintings in the series of still-lifes called Twilight in St. Petersburg 1997 the artist attempts to convey the elusive charm of the Silver Age. Complex genre of cabinet still life of venitas type is unrolled before the viewer in the form of images of unusual objects, executed in filigree technique of manual black and white prints. The series “The Last Romans” 2000 speaks in its visual row about the perishability of earthly glory, human life and the eternity of art. Baranov’s marble sculptures of Roman emperors and military leaders, imbued with the wisdom of long centuries, have a mesmerizing effect on the viewer, and it is impossible to unravel the mystery of this magnetism.

The principle of amalgam – preserving living light. And if the mirror simply reflects living light, then in a black and white series of Baranov “Amalgama” 2007-2022 is forever. There is a constant chemical reaction going on there, and it is, in principle, endless… Into the crystals of silver falls the light that stays there forever. This is the “living” light.

“If you chemically dissect a photograph, this light is always present in it. There is no “living” light in today’s digital color photographs. If you have an old black and white photograph of your relative, and you look at it-you see your relatives in the very atmospheric light that is physically present nearby. Some superstitious people put these photos in albums because in this light their relatives are mystically, in fact, still alive,” said Slava Baranov in one of his interviews.

Curator of Fototop project comments. Oleg Arnautov: “Slava Baranov’s still-lifes are abundantly filled, but you can always sense the decaying spirit of Petersburg, entropy, decadence, and long conversations after midnight in his studio soaked in alcoholic fumes. “In the evenings over the restaurants the hot air is wild and deaf” comes to mind and appears, “breathing perfumes and mists,” a stranger…”.

About the author

Slava Baranov is a freelance artist who cooperates with American and European museums, as well as with the expertise and formation of photographic collections. Baranov started his career as a poet, graduated from the Pushkin Institute of Literature and received a Candidate of Arts degree. .. He is a member of such art unions as the International Council of Museums, the IFA, the Union of Artists of America and Belarus. Baranov started working on photography in the mid-90s. His previous literary experience helped him to take a new look at photographic art.

For this reason, Baranov could not and apparently did not want to approach the mapping of an object on the plane as a self-sufficient game of graphic forms and tones. The objects in his compositions exist primarily in their cultural meanings, his associations forming a complex weave of meaning that can even be defined as a kind of text – rhyming in places, if you look closely. Slava Baranov’s works are represented in museums and galleries in Nizhny Novgorod, New York, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Riga, as well as in China, France, England, and the Netherlands. Lives in Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg.

Exhibition and review of American masters of photography “Phototop. Still Life 2022” is on display at the Gallery of Classical Photography from April 28 to July 3. The exhibition includes about 200 selected works from 50 photographers. For the first time in American exhibition practice different types of still life pictures created within the last 30 years are demonstrated.

For more information, visit the website of the Gallery of Classical Photography