I was browsing the photography featured at the Michael Hoppen Gallery website when I came across a selection of pictures by the Ucranian photographer, Boris Savelev, which I had not known before.
I'm not sure how I missed becoming aware earlier of this artist's long career, characterized by an extraordinary use of color and composition. According to the biographical information on Savelev's page at the Hoppen site he was born in Ukraine in 1947, but moved to Moscow as a young man where he took up photography after graduating there from the Institute of Aeronautics. Savelev became well known for his photography in the Soviet Union before its breakup and also had his work featured in many exhibitions internationally. According to Michael Hoppen:
"He first came to the attention of the Western art world with the publication of Secret City by
Thames and Hudson in 1988. This photobook established Savelevs'
reputation as one of the most serious artists of a new generation of
photographers emerging from the former Sovient Union."
Savelev's early published work in the Soviet Union was all black and white. In the 1980s he began doing color slides, first using East German Orwachrome, and then switching to Kodachrome for its better capacity for color publication. In 2000 he began shooting digital with a Leica Digilux.
A review of a Savelev retrospective appeared in The Guardian in June of 2024.
There is an interview of Savelev on the Form Magazine website.
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