Saint-Petersburg photo vernissage 2010

TECHNICAL SPONSORS:

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<Saint-Petersburg PHOTO VERNISSAGE> 24th of September ... 3rd of October 2009 CEH "Manege" (1, Isaakievskaya sq.)
information participants program press release vernissage-2008

Saint-Petersburg PHOTO VERNISSAGE – 2009
MAN. Life Circulations.

In 2009 «Saint-Petersburg PHOTO VERNISSAGE» presented an exposition named «MAN. Life Circulations.».

Technical sponsors of «Saint-Petersburg PHOTO VERNISSAGE – 2009» became CANON and FOTO-ONE companies.

Master-classes by the following famous photographers were held during the exhibition: Francesco CITO, Antonella MONZONI, Toto BONGIORNO, Franco CARLISI, Tano SIRACUSA, Enzo CEI, Enrico BOSSAN (Italy), Thierry BOUET (France), Anna SHISHKINA / Mother MEADOWS, Ludmila IVANOVA, Anatoly MALTSEV, Alexander BELENKIY, Pavel BOYAROV (Saint-Petersburg), Leonid KRUGLOV (Moscow).

For 9 days the exhibition was visited by 16 340 people.

«Saint-Petersburg PHOTO VERNISSAGE» traditionally had shown two main sections: retrospective and modern photography.

SECTIONS
1. Historical Archival Photography Rites, rituals, initiations and ceremonies in the history of mankind

2. Modern Artistic and Genre Photography
Rites connected with the period of childhood (birth, christening, etc.)
Ceremonies connected with the transition from adolescence to maturity (school)
Various initiation ceremonies (college, army, etc.)
Wedding rituals and ceremonies (matchmaking, engagement, church wedding and wedding feasts)
Rituals connected with funerals, umbra worship (traditions, environment, situations and people)

Rites, rituals and various ceremonies accompany people during a transition period from one age group into another, thus organizing our life into a certain sense unity. The theme of the exhibition “MAN. Life Circulations.” gives an opportunity to present different in significance moments of a human life from birth to death, to show a complicated range of feelings, which a man can experience in different situations and under different circumstances.

RETROSPECTIVE SECTION
includes the archive photographs of the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. Here one can see the scenes of Palm Sunday celebrations, icon-bearing processions in Red Square, a holy-water service at a factory, sacrifice rituals in Bashkir villages, shaman dances, and various funeral processions. Numerous historical documents bring back the memory of the ceremonies of joining the young pioneers or oktobrists organization, the scope of pioneer and komsomol rallies, and officialism of party meetings. Surprisingly touching are the photographs of the 1950-60s, which show weddings, wards in maternity hospitals with newborns and their young mothers, school scenes, life of komsomol units, and construction sites of communism. These photographs allow us to feel the atmosphere of those years; they accurately reflect the spirit of the time.

MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY
Foreign authors from Italy, Greece, USA, Mexico, Argentina, Republic of South Africa and other countries, like in past year, form a big exposition block notable for its subject and style diversity. Weddings follow births, different ceremonies and rituals both religious and secular follow weddings, life is close to death. The French photographer Thierry Bouet created a big gallery of portraits of newborns of different nationalities, they smile and cry, sleep and look at the world they have just entered, and each has its own unique character. This series of photographs has been successfully displayed in all prestigious exhibition halls in Europe.
The works of Francesco Cito, a famous European photographer, the winner of numerous international photo contests give a chance to plunge into the atmosphere of Neapolitan weddings. One can find here the brides full of south bliss, passionate and determined bridegrooms, and cheerful, emotional and spontaneous guests. (This series of photographs has been twice awarded with the prizes of World Press Photo).

Franco Carlisi also displays weddings but in a different scenery – small and narrow streets of Sicilia, old squares and grand cathedrals. His images fascinate by the dynamism of characters, piercing looks, and energy of gestures and movements. Another series of photographs by Irakly Shanidzefeatures weddings celebrated by real members of the Italian mafia.

The Greek weddings by Andreas Schinas brings into this section the temperament of dances, humor, and south sensuality, and the works of Alessandro Bee (Italy) with their bright and fine color scheme acquaint us with matchmaking ceremonies in the African tribe of the Maasai.

The cult of saints is quite popular in Italy. The photographs of Massimo Siragusa tell us about religious holidays and how they are observed. One can see here mass street demonstrations and the ecstasy of believers craving for healing, and the curiosity of idlers.

We see the same festive processions of people with flags and icons in the countries of Latin America. However, the cult of Saint Death prevails here. The image of death is everywhere. Evil figures with scythes dressed in long garments with a hood are asked for protection from violent death and diseases, for help in love affairs and financial matters.
At this photo vernissage masters from Mexico Oscar Alvarez, Fernando Castillo, Vladimir Cortés-Rozhdestvensky and many others demonstrate incredible creative activity through their works which open the enigma of this mysterious and odd mystic world.

The works devoted to the obituary ceremonies sound as a noble camertone, it is grief and sorrow of the family, farewell scenes, myriads of flowers, the monotony of preparations for the funeral, funeral repasts, and installation of a tomb. Different cultural and religious traditions, which add to these rituals a concrete meaning, are presented to the spectators. What are they in Christianity, in Muslim countries or in the regions with Buddhism? The answers can be found in the photographs of Frances Mocnik and Rania Matar (USA), Francesco Cito and Antonella Monzoni (Italy), Gustavo Gatto (Mexico).

A bright part of the exhibition is greatly impressive photographs of Mi Zhou from the USA. His series “Earth”, in fact, presenting a collection of clothes by a famous and eccentric designer of haute couture Ma Ke, the head of the Chinese fashion house Wu Yong, has been transformed into historical characters of the ancient Chinese civilization.

Traditionally Russian photography from different regions and cities of Russia, such as Maikop, Krasnodar, Ekaterinburg, Voronezh, Kursk, and etc. is widely represented at the exhibition. The works of Russian authors from these cities demonstrate a high level of mastery, diversity of subjects and themes. Dmitry Fomichyev (Kursk) displays a full chronicle of icon-bearing processions performed in North Ossetia in the Kurtatinsk canyon. Their photographs make the spectators understand the feelings and the belief of the people. Ravil Avdiev (Novokuznetsk) tells us about the sacrament of christening. Their pictures, emotional, spectacular and well designed, reconstruct a unique image of the present-day Russia.

As always masters from Moscow and Saint-Petersburg take part in the exhibition. A famous traveler and photographer Leonid Kruglov (Moscow) acquaints us with the ceremonies of initiation in African tribes. One can see fights with the sticks and scenes of initiation of boys and girls into a new age group during which they undergo severe physical trials. Among Saint-Petersburg photographers are such famous masters as Alexander Belenky, Ludmila Tabolina, Andrey Chepakin, Evgeny Astashenkov, as well as young experimenters.

Like at previous PHOTO VERNISSAGEs the collections of photo agencies Reuters, ITAR TASS, the Union of Photographers of Russia and magazines National Geographic, ZOOM, and Photographer were exhibited this year.

CONTEST «BEST PHOTOGRAPHY’ 2009»
During Saint-Petersburg PHOTO VERNISAGE winners of contest «BEST PHOTOGRAPHY’ 2009» were chosen by the jury:

Jury chairman - A. Baskakov, president of Russian union of photoartists
Jury members:
P. Markin, faculty of press photographers
A. Alexandrov, chairman of Saint-Petersburg department of Russian union of photoartists
I. Butakov, TV 100
P. Rijkov, NTV
E. Lubomirova, Central state photo and film archive of Saint-Petersburg
A. Nikitin, Saint-Petersburg State University faculty of journalism
D. Pavlov, editor in chief «Photo Business News»
K. Kuzmin, director of CEH «Manege»
C. Kazakov, RTR «Vesti»

Андрей Чепакин - День провозлашения независимости Косово размер

This year winners are:

Franchesco CITO (Italy, Milan),
«Neapolitan weddings» 1994-96

Mi ZHOU (USA, San Francisco),
«New-York»

Antonella MONZONI (Italy, Modena),
«Kumbh Mela». India. 2001

Georgios KATSAGGELOS (Greece, Thessaloniki),
«Psychiatric Hospital of Thessaloniki». 2000-2003

Audience choice winner became Andrey CHEPAKIN (Saint-Petersburg),
«Independence Day of Kosovo. 2008»

Дмитрий Фомичёв - Крестный ход в кавказких горах

Игорь Кожевников - Божьей помощью лекарь

By decision of the chairman of the Union of Photographers A.I. Baskakov photographers nominated for the State grant for cultural workers in the field of photography of the Ministry of Culture of Russia are:

Dmitry FOMICHEV (Kursk),
for works from series «Religious procession in Caucasus mountains» and «Cristening of Ossetians»

Igor KOZHEVNIKOV (Stavropol),
for works from series « St. George's Day. Shaoninsky temple» and «Deo adjuvante healer».

The Saint-Petersburg PHOTO VERNISSAGE was closed on October 3rd, 2009, and the XIV Saint-Petersburg PHOTOFAIR had continued the second part of the same autumn photographic project from 15^th to 18^th October , 2009.

EXHIBITION CURATOR
Marina Jigarkhanyan, phone: 7 (812) 314-4979, e-mail: jigarkhan@manege.spb.ru

ENQUIRES
EC REAL, offiсe 7, 5, 9th Sovetskaya str., St. Petersburg, 191036, Russia
+7 (812) 400-24-40, 400-24-34
info@real-fair.ru
www.real-fair.ru