Click here to register for this FREE live event on September 17 @ 10 AM EDT / 5 PM MSK.
Mary Gelman and Mikhail Domozhilov will hold a wide-ranging discussion on contemporary Russian photography. How does contemporary Russian photography develop after a totalitarian regime? How do Russian photographers represent their identity and Russian reality?
Mary writes: “Documentary photography was not so visible in Soviet times. In 2010, we had the dawn of documentary photography; it was influenced by digital photography and the emergence of the institutionalization of this kind of photography. New authors were discovered who could reflect on the past. In contemporary Russian reality, journalists and photographers are still partly censored. What are the ways that we can develop photography in modern times? Does Western media always request a specific image of Russia? What are the trends for modern Russian photographers? What issues do we ignore, and why?”
Mary Gelman is a Russian photographer based in Saint Petersburg. In 2016, she received a BA in sociology, and at the same time, she graduated from the School of Modern Photography Docdocdoc (Saint Petersburg). She was a participant in various international and local workshops. She works as a photojournalist and teacher. The most important part of her professional life is personal projects. She explores the larger world through close personal narratives. Mary focuses on a study of issues of gender and body, boundary and identity, discrimination and the human relationship with the environment.
Mary won the Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer 2018, Portraits – Hellerau Photography Award Artist in Residence Prize 2019, Istanbul Photo Awards, Andrei Stenin International Photo Contest and others. Her works have been exhibited at Paris Photo in Paris, at the European Center for the Arts in Dresden, and also, she has had many exhibitions in the USA, Germany, Turkey, Lithuania, and Russia.
Mary Gelman’s photography has been published in The Washington Post, National Geographic, Internazionale, Buzzfeed, and other international magazines.
Mikhail Domozhilov is a documentary photographer, photojournalist, winner, and finalist of many photography competitions: NPPA, Grand Award HPA (UNESCO), Sony WPA, LensCulture Exposure Awards, and more. His work has been published in publications in Russia and abroad.
He is one of the organizers of the Modern School of Photography DocDocDoc in 2015. He has been a part of the Nervetic Group since 2018 and focuses on researching the meaning and place of photography in the contemporary world. He is one of the organizers of the gallery and library ZGA, and is a collector and researcher of photography.
