Lost in Publications (One of Boris Mikhailov’s most important work,...)

One of Boris Mikhailov’s most important work, “Case History” explores the break-up of the Soviet Union by focussing on the homeless, living on the margins of Russia’s new economic regime without social support or care. ”Case History” was published in 1999 by SCALO.

“This series of photos is a cycle called “Case History”, that I might equally call the “clinical file of a disease”. It took shape round 1997-1998. A big city, such as Harkov, offered me a great deal of raw material. And I did not miss it, I did not ignore it.”

“What happened on the ruins of the ex-Soviet Empire is still unique. Motivations are different. These guys’ shabbiness is the mirror of the ruin and disappointment of a much larger number of people, most of whom no longer feel safe and wealthy as in the Soviet era; many people’s ideals are gone forever, others have simply gone mad! I have taken pictures of them and I have enjoyed it, and maybe the whole world has a better understanding of the post-communist dramas through these sequences taken directly after nature.”

“I am not trying to take pictures of sensational things, but rather of those things which are in excess.”- Boris Mikhailov

“If models get paid to appear in an advertisement, nobody cares. Why can’t I? This gave me the possibility to photograph them, and gave them the possibility to live. This is what Western photographers would do when they came to Russia to make pictures. The models would be paid as if they were posing nude at the art academy.” - out of “A Conversation with Boris Mikhailov and Eva Resoni”

@1 year ago with 4 notes
(± )
#Boris Mikhailov #Case History