Groups + Locations (Moscow), 2004
Photography, Twelve C-type prints from medium format colour negatives, 100x120cm
Groups + Locations (Moscow) is a series of photographs taken at historic sites in and around Moscow. Based on late 19th century group shots, the work refers to a moment when photography played an important role in the Russian people’s comprehension of what their vast lands and its inhabitants looked like.
The work was made at the height of Russia's wars in Chechnya, when the Russian government had recently restricted all rights to public congregation with more than four people. In a culture where photography is still prohibited in many designated public spaces, the participation of the passers-by and the resulting images develop a political charge. The work hence contravenes against two forms of curtailing civil liberties and becomes a brief moment of protest.
Groups + Locations takes the vernacular of historic group portraiture as a cue for structuring contemporary images that are similarly striking in the intensity of a spontaneous group collectively directing their gazes, their looking focused by the camera. The work proposes a performative approach to portraiture, raising questions about individual and cultural identities, as well as public space as a framework for a participatory practice.