Within the framework of the Ninth Moscow International Biennale "Fashion and Style in Photography 2015," Moscow Multimedia Art Museum presents an exhibition entitled “Freeze” by renowned Russian photographer Vladimir Fridkes dedicated to international ballet star and prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Svetlana Zakharova.
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Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
Within the framework of the Ninth Moscow International Biennale "Fashion and Style in Photography 2015," Moscow Multimedia Art Museum presents an exhibition entitled “Still frame” by renowned Russian photographer Vladimir Fridkes dedicated to international ballet star and prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Svetlana Zakharova.
Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
The “romance” between ballet and photography spans more than a century. The names of star photographers of the twentieth century, including Horst P. Horst, Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, are inseparably linked with the names of dancers and choreographers: Sergei Diaghilev, Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, to name but a few.
Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
Vladimir Fridkes drew his first inspiration from ballet in 2005, a few days before the start of the Bolshoi Theatre’s major makeover. It was a natural impulse on the part of the photographer, who realized the importance of capturing the passing of an epoch. A series of images was born unexpectedly, conceived, it might be said, "by and for itself."
Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
"When I found out that the Bolshoi Theater was to be closed for reconstruction, I realized that all the stage boards, the stairs trod by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of audience members, the curtain that rose and fell a hundred thousand times, all of it, including many Soviet symbols, would be gone forever," says Vladimir Fridkes.
Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
However, the photographer admits that he had no idea how to take shots of dancers — he just trusted his intuition, roaming and scanning the theatrical landscape with his camera. That shoot would form the basis of the exhibition.
Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
Ten years later Fridkes was again drawn to the ballet. Today his lens is focused on one of the stars of the renovated theater, Svetlana Zakharova.
Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
The creative duo of Fridkes and Zakharova celebrates the beauty of movement, clean lines and proportions, the limitless possibilities of the human body.
Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
The theme of movement and dance is in harmony with the theme of the current Biennale — entitled "Between the Real and the Imaginary." Annie Leibovitz once said: "Dance is almost impossible to photograph because it is born out of the air and disappears into the air."
Vladimir Fridkes, Courtesy of MMAM
Vladimir Fridkes tells the story of a protagonist on the verge of the real and the imaginary, plucking from the air and fixing on film the movements from which dance is born.
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