This story was being shot in several parts, in 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2014. Once, being inspired with the legendary pics of Boris Smelov, who took them on the infrared film, I was trying to continue his attempts in perception of the City, and soon I had the “global idea” to shoot a project about the precious necklace of Imperial parks around St. Petersburg. In 2010 I’ve finished the ‘Pavlovsk. Silver’ series.
The geography of the ‘Made-up Landscapes’ exhibition is the Ekaterininsky, Alexandrovsky and Babolovsky parks, as well as the Fedorovsky Town.
It’s strange that the landscape genre itself seems the most “boring” for me, but everything changes once the Architecture and the Sculpture appear in a space.
That brings not just a simple pleasure, but the real enjoyment of “fitting” one entity into another, of seeking for Beauty and Harmony in the rectangle of the viewfinder.
That’s the surprisingly easy way to disengage from the immediate life, to stand beyond not just a season, but an era as well.
And I really cannot but express my sincere admiration for the gardeners-architects, who created the treasures of art that grow in time, changing from translucent winter and spring to shady summer and golden fall.
And all of us are just tiny moments in these landscapes, able only to admire and disappear.