The Spectrum International Prize for Photography is awarded by the Foundation of Lower Saxony (Germany) and the Sprengel Museum Hannover. The jury of the prize recognized Borys Mykhailov to be one of the most outstanding contemporary photo artists.
According to the website newsru.ua, which refers to LIGABiznesInform and Austrian paper Die Presse, Mykhailov became the eighth laureate of this prize, and will receive 15,000 euros as cash award.
Mykhailov was born in Kharkiv. He moved to Berlin in 1996, though he maintained Ukrainian citizenship and visits his motherland often. Majority of the works by the 73 year-old photo artist are an exploration of the border zone between social and private life, weird or uncomfortable situations that occur in it, regardless if it is life of Soviet “bums” or routine of German burghers.
Books and albums by our compatriot are being published all over the world, his exhibits are held in all European capitals. Mykhailov is the only Ukrainian laureate of the Hasselblad Award, which is an unofficial equivalent of the Nobel Prize for photographers. He won it in 2000. It was the participation of Mykhailov that provided the success of Ukrainian exposition during the Venice Biennale in 2007.
The Day had multiple opportunities to talk to the artist, so here are a few extracts from the exclusive interviews with him.
You have been shooting in Ukraine a lot, despite your international fame. What exactly draws you here?
“I see Ukraine as a part of post-Soviet environment. Kharkiv itself is an international city, as I feel it, and I am an international person: I have Ukrainian citizenship, Russian and Jewish roots, I am a mix of everything on the inside. I am interested in what is going on here, in the way the new life is being blended with the old one, in all the games I perceive here more than anywhere else. Great Japanese photographer Moriyama says, ‘I can only shoot in Tokyo. Because I can sense with my back what is going on here.’ It is the same for me, here I sense things more vividly than in other places.”
You have done a lot here indeed. How did your work influence the actual art in Ukraine and all over the CIS in general?
“At some point of time I must have been a greater influence. Now it is slightly different, because my position, and the position of society have changed. You can say that what has already been done, has spread in the air, so there is some influence for sure. But the other question is if it is going to last for a long time.”
What are you looking for in the first place when you walk around with the camera?
“I look for my amazement. A desire to react. And if I react, it is great. Because it is hard to react to something these days.”
Considering this, are you saying that imagination is not used?
“Exactly, no imagination at all. Everything is real. Pure style, it is what you see, and nothing more. No metaphysics at all. It is important for me to find the feeling of living inside.”
Why?
“Because back in The Day people used to paint and shoot ideal things. Another alternatives were to be found. And the photography, which granted access to the truth, worked well. Now, when the computers have appeared, the situation has gotten worse, the reality is dying away. The truth ceased being itself, it can be easily modified.”
So it turns out that the truth is relative?
“The truth is being scattered. The problem is to find it now. It goes like this for me: where is the truth of this time? Within what does it abide? In me shooting the real life; or I can go to a different place with a different truth, or even to another one with the third truth? It is hard to distinguish what deserves attention the most. And then the question arises: are you more precise in a game that can pass this state on, or can you shoot what will be the truth out in the streets?”
Does the important subject change?
“The point is about finding a new subject.”
What is the most important now?
“I cannot give a full answer to this question. And if there will be someone to answer it, they will do a very useful thing right away.”
We send our most sincere greetings to Borys Mykhailov on the occasion of winning the award.
