photo essay by Kostya SmolyaninovThe project “Street Theography” was created during 2006-2014 in different cities of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. No wonder of people praying in church, but the meter of my interest were manifestations of religious feelings in everyday life, on every street. Hence the name and the idea emerged during photographic research ─ especially in the street the conflict between the intimate nature of faith and the public, often ostentatious religiosity strongly appears.
Q&A with Kostya Smolyaninov
Photography is…
Photography for me is a type of research of life around me. From the other hand, it a method of keeping of my inner “ecology”, relax maybe.
Photography and writing…
I am author of a lot of texts about photography and contemporary art in Russian and Ukrainian. It my hobby to speak a lot about photography and to write about it. I believe that it is very important for the comprehension of what You do.
Who left the biggest impression on you?
Maybe unfortunately, but the biggest impression on me had not photographers but another artists such as Irish performer Nigel Rolfe, German saxophonist Peter Brotzmann or American media-artist Erwin Redl.
Tell us a little about yourself
I was born and permanently live in a beutiful Ukrainean city Lviv. I am biochemist, and photography was not my main occupation. But step by step it became my basic source of self realization in life. It is the main part of my life, the most important part.
Kostya Smolyaninov (website), born 1971, Lviv Ukraine.
Selected Solo Exhibitions: Street Theography Szczecin, Poland, Fot-Art Gallery, March 2008; Album Rzescow, Poland, BWA Gallery, August 2011; Universal Spaces Lviv, Ukraine, Dzyga Gallery, April 2012. Photo book Street Theography – 2014.
