Boris Andreyevich Mikhailov (Бори́с Андрі́йович Миха́йлов, born August 25, 1938 in Kharkov, Ukraine) is a fine art photographer who has been described as one of the most important artists to have emerged from the former USSR. He was twice nearly imprisoned by the KGB.


Life and work

Born in the former Soviet Union, he lived and worked for several decades in his hometown Kharkiv, Ukraine. He received an education as an engineer and started to teach himself the practice of photography. Today he is one of the most successful and well-known photographers, who already was actively working in soviet times. His work very much is influenced in the means of Concept-Art and social documentary photography. At the end of the 1960s he had his first exhibition. After the KGB found nude pictures of his wife he was set off his job as an engineer and started to full-time work with photography. He shot a series of everyday-life scenes-documentation. His most famous work during this period (1968–1975) was the "Red Serie". In these photographs he mainly used the colour red, to picture people, groups and city-life. Red is the color standing for October Revolution, political party and the social system of soviet society. It is often said, that within those works critical elements toward the existing political circumstances can be found.

In his work Klebrigkeit (1982) he added explaining notes, or he is using diary-like writings. As an important part of contemporary art are considered his works "Case History". Here he examines the consequences of the breakdown of the Soviet Union for the people living there. Therefore he systematically took pictures of homeless people, who soon started trusting him. More than 500 photographs show the situation of people, who after the breakdown of the Soviet Union were not able to catch hold in a secured social system. In a very direct way Mikhailov points out his critique against the "mask of beauty" of the uprising post-soviet capitalistic way of life. It is one of the best works found within social documentary photography.

In 2004 Boris Mikhailov exhibited a first series of Berlin. Again his attention is drawn to people living at the edge of society.


Selected solo exhibitions

2006: Bereznitsky Gallery, Berlin, Moments/Monuments
2006: Shugoarts, Tokyo, Yesterday's Sandwich
2005: Galerie Ilka Bree, Bordeaux, Butterbrot
2005: Centre de la Photographie, Geneve, Look at me I look at Water
2004: Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona
2004: Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin, In the Street
2004: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA
2003: Fotomuseum Winterthur, Private Freuden, lastende Langweile, öffentlicher Zerfall - eine Retrospective
2002: Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, The Insulted and the Injured
2001: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Case History&Heiner Müller Project
2001: Saatchi Gallery, London

Literature

1995 Boris Michaijlov, Stuttgart
1998 Unfinished Dissertation, Zürich
2000 Michajlov: The Hasselblad Award 2000
2003 Eine Retrospktive, Zürich
2004 Look at me I look at water, Göttingen

Awards

1997 Albert Renger-Patzsch Buchpreis
1996 Award of Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation, Switzerland
2000 Auszeichnung der Hasselblad-Stiftung, Sweden
2001 Citibank Fotografie-Preis
2001 Foto-Buchpreis der Krazna-Krausz-Stiftung, London (Kraszna-Krausz Book Award)