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COMMENTS ON PHOTOGRAPHS OF VOLUME I Family
Family photos hardly ever spark interest in viewers which is quite natural: the portrayed with stiff faces are neither actors, nor artists, nor warlords, nor their offspring. Not interesting. However, a worthy candid photograph may cast light on the author’s origins, his way of shooting, approach to framing, etc.
1. Nearest and Dearest
No. 002, p. 7 Wood in Kolomenskoye. 1990s I received a call from Anatoly Erin who was known in Innovator [31] as a landscape tog and king of the monocle. He invited me to Kolomenskoye: “It’s cherry blossom time!” I took my monocle, a present from Kolosov, and darted off. The day was sunny with flares all around, perfect for the lens. The blossoming cherry and apple trees stood against the light, dreamy and fantastic. Of course I shot them. When sorting out the archive for exhibitions, I suddenly associated my family with the family of these trees. The soft lens effect added up to the picture!
No. 003, p. 16 My Mother Sewing. 1985 No. 004, p. 18 Vera in the Village. 1990s No. 005, p. 19 Mask (Zoya is Two Months Old). 1972 No. 006, p. 19 Zoya in the Field. 1973 No. 007, p. 20 Zoya on the Porch. 1978 It was in Tsvetkovo, the village we went to with my family to live for a while in izba bought by a colleague of mine. My Zenit was with me. One morning I looked at the porch. The texture of wooden floor in the shadow and the silhouette of the latch got me hooked. I asked my daughter to sit down on the step. Her tiny figure was key to the image. A wide-angle lens yielded a cone-shaped composition and captured shadow details, like those at the bucket. I propped the camera against the jamb of another door to avoid hand shake. It is still beyond me how Fursov managed to print the street with all this contrast.
006
* All images in the Comments on Photographs of all three volumes are numbered by the author Mikhail Dashevsky. Thus, all the comments can be read through as an independent continuous text consisting of short notes.—Editor’s note.
007
Mikhail Dashevsky
No. 001,* pp. 8–9 Self-portrait. 1962 I still have my hair, so this is a very old one, taken around 1965 with Zenit-3S. I longed for an all-in-one shot which could do more than a pretentious mainstream series. And here, amid sugar and spaghetti, some window dresser of a cheesy grocery fitted a hex mirror with life expanding in it—shoot as much as you like! I was then kicked by the idea to make an image with multiple meanings.
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