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Time is fugitive.
It transforms us.
It leaves or stays forever.
One day in the early winter.
Peace and quiet - the first experience of life.
Tender whisper of falling snow.
Murmur of dried grass.
Time for oneself.
The time of white silver.
Paysage is a French word that comes from pays - lend, place.
But Ivan Boyko's photos are not just landscapes; they are rather portrait galleries of spiritualized nature which is not an object, but a subject. It is the character.
23 works, which FotoLoft shows are just one day from the life of the artist in Alsace in the early winter, but it is a long way there. They are the result of search of the fundamental principle of life, which manifests at a certain moment of complete relaxation and concentration, simultaneously, when at the camera shutter click, the artist moves and the world around come together.
It is life captured by the camera. The life, which people usually perceive as a background of their existence. But only still, it is possible to notice that it something bigger than a smart stage set. And behind their seeming simplicity zillions of things open suddenly.
The laconic composition and asceticism of means of expression give the spectator the freedom for interpretation and sensation.
"The time of silver" is a history of one person, a history of one search, of fixation and loss. Since everything, inaccessible by the human mind and falling beyond the daily necessarily, disappears as soon as you touch it. Because a mystery must remain a mystery.
And, nevertheless, the 23 monochrome photos made in the woods of Alsace stick to the memory of its existence and of the illusive possibility to join it just for one small moment and to see the big in the small.
About the artist:
Ivan Boiko was born in Moscow in 1976. He graduated from the Historical Department of the Moscow State University, participated in work of the Center of Visual Anthropology. He worked as a photographer for the State Historical Museum, participated in the projects of the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society (MAPS).
His works were published in GEO, the National Geographic, the Architecture Digest, the Headquarters, the Alternative International, the Foreign Policy, etc.
Since 2008 he is a member of the Paris agency Picture Tank. He cooperates with the VU, Ciric, Voleur d'Images (Paris).
From 1996 through 2004 he worked for the project devoted to the Russian Old Belief in the Upper Kama and Altai. This work embodied in a series of photo-exhibitions, including, within the frame work of the Moscow Photobiennale - 2004 and the Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles International Festival (Arle, France, 2006, commissioner - Raymond Depardon). His book Vieux Croyants de Russie (The Russian Old Believers), Paris, Somogy Edition, 2006, was awarded in 2008 the Honourable Mention award at the PX3 Prix de dl Photographie competition.
The works of Ivan Boiko are in the collections of the Moscow House of Photographie, the Marc Bloch University (Strasbourg, Fracne), and in private collection.
Exhibitions:
2008 - "Sotchi" , la Boite a Boitiers Gallery, Strasbourg, France
"Paris Desenchante", la Boite a Boitiers Gallery, Strasbourg, France
2006 - "Les Vieux Croyants de Russie ", Museon, Arlaten, Festival des Rencontres d'Arles, France
2004 - "Altai", the Fifth International Moscow month of Photography
Moscow house of Photography, Photobiennale 2004
2002 - "Study", la Boite a Boitiers Gallery, Strasbourg, France
2001 - Les Vieux Croyants de Verchokam'e, Marc Block University, rasbourg, France
1999 - "Mirror", New Studio, Moscow, Russia
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