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My Way Magazine (ii)
EMIGRANT
The way 1 ended up in the West is quite interesting. It was in 1989.1 was hanging out with Moscow poets. Everyone hung out together in those days: speculators, artists, poets—the bohemian crowd! They put on a grandiose farewell evening for me at the House of Writers. There were fifteen people at the table, we drank and had a good time. They went to see me off at Sheremetovo airport. I didn't tell anyone that I was intending to stay... We sat at the airport and slowly got drunk. I didn't have many things with me—I had $ 100 which were taken away from me. I had a Cannon camera, two lenses and $ 10 tucked away in the camera case. I was put on the plane. I was alone in business class. I was served vodka, champagne and black caviar. I sat there, saying farewell to my homeland. I dreamt of the «big city lights», Charlie Chaplin... I dreamt of seeing the lights of London from the air, as we approached.
In an hour and a half I got completely drunk. I felt very bad. I locked myself in the toilet. Half an hour after we landed at Heathrow, the air hostesses opened the door of the toilet and took me off the plane. Everyone else had already left.
PHOTOGRAPHER
How did my career as a photographer begin? Alan, the owner of a gym where 1 worked as a janitor, said to me: "There's a famous photographer who comes here. You said you like photographs. Go and talk to him, maybe he'll help you find work. The famous photographer was Andrew McPherson. He listened to me and introduced me to Roy, the owner of a photo studio. The biggest fashion photographers and other photographers brought their works to this studio. And I started working on developing and printing black-and-white photos. I met all the celebrities there. And I started taking my own photos.
And in 1992 I heard that the Bolshoi Theater was coming on four to London, and I decided that it was time to start! I came to the Royal Opera House, and 1 lied to them that I was from the Bolshoi Theater myself. Every day I filmed the rehearsals, the performances, I sat in the orchestra pit, made portraits and filmed parties in the hotel. I still have 400 films of the Bolshoi. They are unique pictures, a unique part of history. I wanted to publish a book, but at the time I was a nobody, and no one needed it... The theater left. I had very rich material, which 1 took to the British Journal of Photography. They gave me a double page. If I'd been told in Moscow that I would be published in the British Journal of Photography, 1 would have died from happiness! Л month later the journal with my photos of the Bolshoi Theater came out. And I immediately received work at the Royal Opera House, National Ballet, Royal Court Theatre, Royal National Theatre and so on and so on... I started taking portraits of famous actors. 1 worked at Sotheby's for two years. Then Christie's hired me, and I worked there for three years I also worked for Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Harpers & Queen, Conde Nast Traveller, Tatler...
PROPHET
I have traveled widely around the world, taking photos of everything that I found interesting. In the end, I decided to unite everything I had seen in one photographic saga about mass consciousness.... That's how my book with the Biblical name of «Locusts» came into being. It is an anthropological study of the nature of the modern human being—who are we, what have we become, and how absurd we sometimes look. Despite the serious theme, my approach to the subject is quite humorous. Human beings are not so much sinful or depraved, they are rather essentially weak. I didn't want to shock or frighten anyone—if I had I would have taken photos of slums and other dreadful things. I wanted to show the ordinary weaknesses of ordinary people. We live in a consumer age. Instead of walls, we have billboards, instead of travelers, we have tourists, instead of citizens, we have customers, instead of holidays, we have sales, instead of spiritual guidelines, we have money. There's something wrong here, don't you think?
THE THREE LIVES OF OSKAR RABIN
Author Yulia Evdokimova
The name of this man is known by everyone who is even remotely interested in «different» soviet art. The life and work of Oskar Rabin have long become legendary, and an important page in the history of our country. This former soviet dissident, emigrant and internationally recognized artist recently celebrated his 80™ birthday, brought a huge exhibition of his paintings to moscow, and shared the facts of his incredible biography with us.
Oskar Yakovlevich, why is your exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery called «Three Lives»? o.R. My life turned out in such a way that you can divide it into three parts, which cannot be combined into a whole. My first life, shall we say, ended in 1953. Before this I lived like an ordinary Soviet person, earning my daily bread as best I could. Drawing was difficult for me at that time, because I hadn't decided what to draw and how. I had to carry out an order, for example book illustrations for a publishing house. Incidentally, I never did this very well. I can't boast that I was a good designer. Essentially I didn't need to do this anymore when private buyers began purchasing my paintings. But I had to be employed somewhere to avoid being labeled a parasite. Did private buyers start purchasing your works immediately?
The way 1 ended up in the West is quite interesting. It was in 1989.1 was hanging out with Moscow poets. Everyone hung out together in those days: speculators, artists, poets—the bohemian crowd! They put on a grandiose farewell evening for me at the House of Writers. There were fifteen people at the table, we drank and had a good time. They went to see me off at Sheremetovo airport. I didn't tell anyone that I was intending to stay... We sat at the airport and slowly got drunk. I didn't have many things with me—I had $ 100 which were taken away from me. I had a Cannon camera, two lenses and $ 10 tucked away in the camera case. I was put on the plane. I was alone in business class. I was served vodka, champagne and black caviar. I sat there, saying farewell to my homeland. I dreamt of the «big city lights», Charlie Chaplin... I dreamt of seeing the lights of London from the air, as we approached.
In an hour and a half I got completely drunk. I felt very bad. I locked myself in the toilet. Half an hour after we landed at Heathrow, the air hostesses opened the door of the toilet and took me off the plane. Everyone else had already left.
PHOTOGRAPHER
How did my career as a photographer begin? Alan, the owner of a gym where 1 worked as a janitor, said to me: "There's a famous photographer who comes here. You said you like photographs. Go and talk to him, maybe he'll help you find work. The famous photographer was Andrew McPherson. He listened to me and introduced me to Roy, the owner of a photo studio. The biggest fashion photographers and other photographers brought their works to this studio. And I started working on developing and printing black-and-white photos. I met all the celebrities there. And I started taking my own photos.
And in 1992 I heard that the Bolshoi Theater was coming on four to London, and I decided that it was time to start! I came to the Royal Opera House, and 1 lied to them that I was from the Bolshoi Theater myself. Every day I filmed the rehearsals, the performances, I sat in the orchestra pit, made portraits and filmed parties in the hotel. I still have 400 films of the Bolshoi. They are unique pictures, a unique part of history. I wanted to publish a book, but at the time I was a nobody, and no one needed it... The theater left. I had very rich material, which 1 took to the British Journal of Photography. They gave me a double page. If I'd been told in Moscow that I would be published in the British Journal of Photography, 1 would have died from happiness! Л month later the journal with my photos of the Bolshoi Theater came out. And I immediately received work at the Royal Opera House, National Ballet, Royal Court Theatre, Royal National Theatre and so on and so on... I started taking portraits of famous actors. 1 worked at Sotheby's for two years. Then Christie's hired me, and I worked there for three years I also worked for Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Harpers & Queen, Conde Nast Traveller, Tatler...
PROPHET
I have traveled widely around the world, taking photos of everything that I found interesting. In the end, I decided to unite everything I had seen in one photographic saga about mass consciousness.... That's how my book with the Biblical name of «Locusts» came into being. It is an anthropological study of the nature of the modern human being—who are we, what have we become, and how absurd we sometimes look. Despite the serious theme, my approach to the subject is quite humorous. Human beings are not so much sinful or depraved, they are rather essentially weak. I didn't want to shock or frighten anyone—if I had I would have taken photos of slums and other dreadful things. I wanted to show the ordinary weaknesses of ordinary people. We live in a consumer age. Instead of walls, we have billboards, instead of travelers, we have tourists, instead of citizens, we have customers, instead of holidays, we have sales, instead of spiritual guidelines, we have money. There's something wrong here, don't you think?
THE THREE LIVES OF OSKAR RABIN
Author Yulia Evdokimova
The name of this man is known by everyone who is even remotely interested in «different» soviet art. The life and work of Oskar Rabin have long become legendary, and an important page in the history of our country. This former soviet dissident, emigrant and internationally recognized artist recently celebrated his 80™ birthday, brought a huge exhibition of his paintings to moscow, and shared the facts of his incredible biography with us.
Oskar Yakovlevich, why is your exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery called «Three Lives»? o.R. My life turned out in such a way that you can divide it into three parts, which cannot be combined into a whole. My first life, shall we say, ended in 1953. Before this I lived like an ordinary Soviet person, earning my daily bread as best I could. Drawing was difficult for me at that time, because I hadn't decided what to draw and how. I had to carry out an order, for example book illustrations for a publishing house. Incidentally, I never did this very well. I can't boast that I was a good designer. Essentially I didn't need to do this anymore when private buyers began purchasing my paintings. But I had to be employed somewhere to avoid being labeled a parasite. Did private buyers start purchasing your works immediately?