I tend to get obsessed with one photographer at a time, and lately I've been on a minor Boris Mikhailov kick. You know the routine where you dig through someone's books and web images all in a frenzy, trying to figure out where a person is coming from. I thought I had Mikhailov pegged. He's the Ween of the photo world with a style that's completely malleable, but always with one foot in the conceptual camp.
Then today I saw this photo of his in a recent book.
Holy darn if Mikhailov doesn't have some street in him! This photo has it all. Mystery, timing, form. What a perfect moment. So how the F- did it come from someone like Mikhailov? It looks nothing like his other photos and I would never in a million years attach his name to it. I know that's probably why he took it. He likes to defy expectation. But the thing is, you can't will yourself to be a street photographer. You can't just pull a photo like this out of your ass, which is what he appears to have done here. Or can you?
Too many questions. I suppose I should just enjoy the image and let my preconceptions get crapped on. Meanwhile, my infatuation festers.
Boris not street? Not feeling ya here...
ReplyDeletehttp://englishrussia.com/2008/02/25/russia-by-boris-mikhailov/
Good call Stan. Some of his photos could definitely be labeled as broadly "street". What I was referring to (sloppily) in this photo is the type of street that depends of clever capture, timing, and a bit of serendipity. Classic street, in other words, like Jeff Mermelstein or Matt Stuart or somebody. This photo is the first I've seen from him which really falls into that vein.
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