“Look at Me, I Look at Water” was composed in 1999 at the suggestion of the Heiner Müller-Society when Boris Mikhailov’s name was found in one of Heiner Müller’s notebooks. With this book Mikhailov is continuing, thematically and conceptionally, what he began with his artist’s book Unfinished Dissertationin 1985. The photographs are accompanied by handwritten Russian commentaries, which together give the impression of a private album which narrates stories from a chapter in the artist’s life. (Publisher’s Description)

“Look at Me, I Look at Water”, Steidl 2004 © Boris Mikhailov

“Look at Me, I Look at Water”, Steidl 2004 © Boris Mikhailov

“Look at Me, I Look at Water”, Steidl 2004 © Boris Mikhailov

“Look at Me, I Look at Water”, Steidl 2004 © Boris Mikhailov

“Look at Me, I Look at Water”, Steidl 2004 © Boris Mikhailov

“Look at Me, I Look at Water”, Steidl 2004 © Boris Mikhailov

“This was a time in my life of much traveling — from East to West, and back again — and it coincided with a certain loss of identity. It was a time in which moral qualities seemed shaken: the focus of my attention altered, latching onto the possibility of moral change. The gaze which searches over the surface of things held sway over a more analytical response to the visual. I feel that this book may be of interest, trying as it does to reflect the initial period associated with the processes of emigration. The pictures describe a range of unstable states, and also the intensity of some obscure quest, a quest which is also a sort of experiment.” - Boris Mikhailov

“Look at Me, I Look at Water” was published by Steidl in 2004, where you still can get a copy steidlville.com.

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