Fedor Telkov "The Right of Faith"

Curator - Sergey Babkin.

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents the exhibition "Right of Faith", created by Russian photographer and artist Fyodor Telkov, whose practice is primarily focused on studying and creating a portrait of his native Ural region of Russia. This project is presented as part of the "Photo / Commentary" program.

The project "Right of Faith" is a long-term visual study of modern Old Believers, which reveals its culture to the viewer through black-and-white, grainy photographs. The visual series is accompanied by numerous interviews with representatives of different communities and consents, of different ages and status, as well as with the descendants of the Old Believers. In each interview, there is a common motif of the struggle for freedom of one’s religion and cultural identity against the background of wars, repressions, dispossession of kulaks and accusations of heresy. Transcripts of the direct speech of the characters are edited minimally, which preserves the uniqueness of each individual story. The “Right of Faith” project can be called a unique phenomenon, since the last such visual study of the Old Believer culture was carried out more than a hundred years ago by Nizhny Novgorod photographer Maxim Petrovich Dmitriev.

About the artist

Fedor Telkov is a photographer, artist and researcher of the anthropological and cultural diversity of the Urals and Russia. Born in 1986, lives and works in Yekaterinburg. He graduated from the graphic arts department of the Nizhny Tagil State Social and Pedagogical Academy, then took several professional courses. Teacher of graphic design and applied photography, since 2010 a member of the Union of Photographers of Russia, curator at the photographic museum "Metenkov’s House" (2017-2019)

Winner of numerous awards in the field of photography and contemporary art: laureate of the "Circuito OFF" competition within the festival "Festival di Cortona", Italy (2013), "Young Photographers of Russia" (2018, 2016, 2013, 2009), laureate of the International Photojournalism Competition named after Andrey Stenin, Russia, (2018, 2016); Fotocanal Photography BOOK 2016, Spain, Madrid, (2016), Urbanautica SACRED. THE EXPERIENCE OF BEYOND, Italy (2020), winner of the Innovation Award in the nomination Project of the Year with the exhibition Ural Mari. There is no death, etc.

Personal exhibitions of Fyodor Telkov and group exhibitions with his participation were held in Holland, the USA, France, Japan and other countries, as well as in many cities of Russia. Published four books (independently and in collaboration). Published in The Independent Photographer, British Journal of Photography, GEO, The Guardian, Russian Reporter, The Calvert Journal, Forbes, YET magazine, The New Times, BBC, Port and many others.