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Sergey Bratkov

Heldenzeiten. Werke 1995–2007

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This catalog features Ukrainian photographer Sergey Bratkov’s expressive portraits and powerful images of contemporary Russia


Multilingual Edition (German, English)
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Title Details
Edited by Nadine Wietlisbach
2009
Hardback
192 pages, 66 color and 20 b/w illustrations
21 x 27 cm
ISBN 978-3-85881-218-6

Ukrainian photographer Sergey Bratkov (*1960) is internationally acclaimed for his powerful images of contemporary Russia. But despite his many global exhibitions, his work has rarely been published. Sergey Bratkov is the first survey of the photographer’s influential oeuvre.

Raised and educated in the Soviet Union, Bratkov has spent his career training the penetrating gaze of his camera on the fractured lives and bleak structures that pervade the region. Some of the images presented here are unsparing documents of daily life after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with poverty, prostitution, and homelessness among the many issues he tackles. In his expressive portraits, he strips away the ideological clichés of the communist years—and subsequent aspirations for Eastern capitalism—to reveal the complex reality. Essays by Thomas Seelig, Boris Buden, and Bart de Baere, and an interview with the artist by Anna Alchuk and Mikhail Ryklin draw out the social and artistic criticism embedded in Bratkov’s work, while not denying the powerful lyricism of his images.

Published to coincide with a 2008 exhibition at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Sergey Bratkov is essential for art scholars and historians alike.

Echo

«Seine Porträts, Bilder und Texte sind herrlich verschroben, ironisch und provozierend. Der Geheimtipp des Spätsommers.» Photonews

«Bratkov ist – in bester russischer Tradition – ein Geschichtenerzähler, dem freilich die Utopien (à la Gorki) abhanden gekommen sind. Wo Helden auftauchen, treffen wir eher auf Heldendarsteller. Sinnsuche wird auch nicht zuletzt zu einer Suche nach Identität, gewürzt mit Ironie, die bisweilen an Zynismus grenzt. Auf alle Fälle: grandios.» Hans-Michael Koetzle, Photo International

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