Sergey Yastrzhembsky

Africa: zoom in / zoom out

MOSCOW CITY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE
MULTIMEDIA ART MUSEUM, MOSCOW

SERGEI YASTRZHEMBSKY
AFRICA: ZOOM IN / ZOOM OUT
13 February 2019 — 10 March 2019

Strategic partner: Volvo Car Russia
Curator: Nina Levitina

As part of the XI Moscow International Biennale ‘Fashion and Style in Photography-2019’, the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents an exhibition by the celebrated photographer and documentary filmmaker Sergei Yastrzhembsky, with whom MAMM is associated by 15 years of friendship and cooperation.

Sergei Yastrzhembsky is a former diplomat and politician. He took up photography as a profession at the age of 50, with the support of outstanding photographer Lev Melikhov. Since then he has participated in more than 50 exhibitions at the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), Pushkin State Museum (Moscow), Slovak National Museum, Andersen Museum (Rome), Fondo Alinari (Florence), Moscow House of Photography, Ekaterina Cultural Foundation (Moscow), Manege Central Exhibition Hall (Moscow), New Manege (Moscow) and different galleries in Paris, Venice, Florence, Milan, Brussels, Lisbon and Peking. In 2005 Yastrzhembsky won a Grand Prix at the Silver Camera competition for the best photo reportage of Moscow. Works by Sergei Yastrzhembsky are held by the collections of Russian and foreign museums, and in private collections. He has also published 10 personal photo albums in Russia, Italy and France.

The latest exhibition by Sergei Yastrzhembsky is devoted exclusively to Africa, seen from the height of a bird’s eye view, when the landscape is transformed into ingenious abstract images. Yastrzhembsky has described his love for photography and Africa as follows:

‘I discovered photography as an art form and favourite occupation when I had already reached a mature age. After turning 50. I was another «victim» of the crisis of middle age, seeking new tastes, feelings and means of self-expression in life. At that moment I had the great fortune to meet Lev Melikhov, the famous Russian photographer. He looked through dozens of my shots taken ... in Africa, and his comment was: «Not bad at all. After my lessons we could make something worthwhile of you!» But first, before Melikhov, came Africa! After that my whole life was transformed. Why? Because in the late 70s I visited Africa for the first time on safari, not a photo safari, we went there to hunt. I was shaken by this new reality. The riot of colour, unique aromas and sounds, exotic beasts, the local trackers — Bushmen, Pygmies or Maasai who looked like beings from another planet, all this literally enchanted me. You could say I experienced the «Stendhal syndrome». I wanted to share my enthusiasm with those closest to me. That’s why I turned up on the second safari with a professional camera as well as a rifle. It was in Africa that I discovered the photographic genre in which I probably achieved the greatest success, what I call «aero-impressionism». This involves shooting from small aircraft, helicopters or balloons, when I literally «hunt» for the disappearing landscape and try to capture it for eternity. For me the shoot is full of excitement, for it happens in fractions of a second and there is no opportunity to return a lost moment. In an instant the eye must «snatch» a unique combination of form and colour to create my new photo-reality. Finally, I will always be grateful to Africa for the chance to photograph it from the inside, in close-up, to reveal its harsh beauty, creativity and sexuality. To do that I had to immerse myself in the life of the tribes, among the Maasai, Pygmies, Himba, Surma and Dinka, and become for a while «one of them» in order to capture moments from their everyday life, which seems incredibly exotic to us. Today I am more than happy to share my love of Africa with you.’

In 2009 Sergei Yastrzhembsky founded the Yastrebfilm documentary film studio. The studio’s first project was a cycle of films on Africa, ‘Beyond the Passage of Time’, about the vanishing tribes of the Dark Continent. Three years later the geography of filming was extended, adding Siberia, Southeast Asia, Oceania and Latin America to the African perspective.

To date the Yastrebfilm studio’s collection amounts to 68 documentary films. Nearly all the films have been shown on the Russia-2 and My Planet television channels by the author’s own programme, ‘The Magic of Adventure’.

In total the Yastrebfilm studio’s portfolio includes more than 20 awards from Russian and international film festivals such as the New York Film Festival (NYCIFF), the Views of the World International Film Festival in Montreal and the International Wildlife Conservation Film Festival — WCFF in New York. Documentary films by Sergei Yastrzhembsky have also received the Golden Eagle national prize (2013, 2017). The film ‘Bloody Tusks’, which was included in the longlist for the Oscar awards, has already received many international prizes and been shown at MAMM as part of the Biennale-2018.