Alexander Kitaev
NY ARTS
Alexander Kitaev
Kitaev abides by the chosen methods of picture-taking, printing techniques and fancied themes and images. He favors classical staged photography where the image is neatly arranged and the chiaroscuro is thoroughly elaborated to show the slightest nuances of black and grey. This produces a spectacular picture-like effect in the image, literarily and artistically fraught. A landscape, a still-life- in these genres, Kitaev is exacting about professional quality; his works connote the finest watercolor techniques. Such an association is not accidental, it exposes the exaggerated aesthetic, graphic accent peculiar to his photographs, a quality which links him to the rich Petersburg traditions of print-making worship and a nostalgic, poetic attitude towards the city. Works in Kitaev’s Petersburg series of photographs are made of transparent gossamer, soft light and retrospective, redolent of the REALM-of-ARTians, haze. At the same time, the photographer?s tenacious eye focuses on the town’s grimaces; he resorts to grotesque typification since they all bear the mark of the Petersburgian perception of space and the telling texture of the city.
NY ARTS: What is your method of choosing themes and images to work with? Describe the role of illusion in the staging of the photographs.
Kitaev: It seems that it is not I who chooses images and subjects, for I neither bear relation to the art-market nor take commissions. The subjects choose me. That is, there comes a time, though you can never foresee it, when you start vibrating to the pulse of the city space. Much gets entangled- the place, your life experience, your inward feelings and their relation to the outside world, and God knows what else! And then you respond to some outer visual stimuli, and suddenly find the answer to something that has hitherto lain beyond and, as if you have gained the power of speech again, there comes a photograph which is hardly your creation.
Courtesy of www.Russkialbum.ru
