Svetlana Zakharova captured by Vladimir Fridkes’ camera: Still Frame

At Moscow's Multimedia Art Museum an exhibition of photographs by Russian photographer Vladimir Fridkes featuring Svetlana Zakharova has opened and will run until 8 March. The exhibition – called Svetlana Zakharova: Still Frame – is part of the IX Moscow International Biennale Fashion and Style in Photography 2015.

Fridkes, a photographer for fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper's' Bazaar, first turned to ballet in 2005, a few days before the beginning of the Bolshoi Theatre's restoration project.

When I heard that the Bolshoi Theatre was to be closed for restoration, I realized that the atmosphere from all those old corridors and stairs where hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people had walked, the curtain which had risen and fell hundreds of thousands of times, and even the old Soviet symbols, would be lost. I had no idea how to photograph dancers, I just wandered around with my camera, trusting my intuition.

The result was a series of photos called Ten Days To… published in the book Bolshoi and also exhibited at the Multimedia Art Museum in 2012.

Now, six years later, Still Frame mixes studio shots with backstage photos of Zakharova, who chose Fridkes for this project. In an interview with RIA Novosti she said,

Half of the more than 60 pictures were taken in a studio, and the other half were taken when I was on stage, in rehearsal, and behind the scenes, even when I had no idea that I was being photographed. Some of them capture those moments that the audience cannot see and reveal some of the secrets of our profession. They are very strong images, and I'm happy to be working with such a talented photographer.

Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
Ostozhenka st., 16, Moscow, +7 (495) 637-1100
12:00—21:00, Tuesday to Sunday

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.