you, the living

Here’s another image-loaded post, and yet another Russian photographer. I always loved the poignant and the humorous images, but when they are shot to such precision they make my heart yearn. Alexander Petrosyan shoots the mundane and the banal, and if you follow through the red thread of his work, you notice the symbolic meanings behind every picture. He also loves to photograph his native city – St.-Petersbourg, which often appears picture-perfect, like an image from a tourist postcard, but don’t be fooled by this seemingly perfect town! The backstreets are eerie and often desolate, the golden roof-tops of cathedrals are viewed through the dilapidated windows and attics, the inhabitants are unfortunate dreamers. It reminds me at most of Roy Andersson’s films, loaded with agonizing sarcasm. Yet this is not pastel-coloured Sweden – Petrosyan’s photos often surprise with unusual light and vivid colour combinations of ochre, green, mint and old rose, and the winter landscapes strike with contrast of greying mint and burning red. They could all be screen-shots from some movie, probably called ‘life’.