Exhibitions of the photographer Alexandra Demenkova "Russian Love"

An exhibition by the photographer Alexandra Demenkova, which explores complex, hidden, often unsightly topics and captures the everyday life of people outside big cities, continuing the tradition of humanistic photography.

The exhibition will include photographs of Alexandra Demenkova from the series "Russian Portfolio", "Kola Peninsula", "Ira and Shurochka" and "Baba Valya" traces of a disappearing lifestyle, but make contact with people who are still in the villages - they drink, work, look after livestock or just live and love - and build relationships and even friendship with them.

Demenkova’s approach to shooting is delicate and far from exploitation. Slowness in work, sympathy and cohabitation of days, weeks with the heroes of the shooting is a key component of Demenkova’s life and work, for which empathy, empathy and the creation of a safe, trusting space are important. Perhaps that is why the fate of the artist is closely intertwined with the life of her protagonists, and the camera lens naturally finds itself in the middle of their intimate life, everyday life and everyday life, which might seem unsightly to us, but, despite the circumstances, are filled with love, sexuality, hope, inexplicable optimism to us….

“I remember the first time I saw Baba Valya at the gate in the yard of her house in July 2016. She got out, hearing the car and thinking that her nephews had arrived. Together with her came out to meet me two goats, black and white, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, chickens - it seems they were all there. She stood among them and listened to me, and I had only one thought in my head - "This is it!" Then I stayed with her for two weeks. I felt that gradually she, too, fell in love with me and became sad when I began to talk about leaving, persuading me to stay for a month. We agreed that I would be back in two months, when she would plow the garden. Saying goodbye, we hugged and could not hold back tears. Since then, I have been visiting Baba Valya at the first opportunity, and she has become for me one of the closest people in the world. " Alexandra Demenkova, 2019

Alexandra Demenkova (born 1980 in Kingisepp, Leningrad Region) is a Russian photographer. She took part in international photo festivals and exhibitions in Russia, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain and other countries. Personal exhibitions were held at the Center for Contemporary Photography Contretype, Brussels, Belgium, the Latvian Museum of Photography, Riga, Latvia and other museums and galleries. Demenkova’s works are in the collections: CBK (Centrum Beeldende Kunst) Zuidoost, Amsterdam, Holland, Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal, The Hague, Holland, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Holland, as well as in other public and private collections in Russia, Europe and the USA.