Sergey Kuksin

Out of time portrait

In the project ‘Portraits Beyond Time’, Rossiyskaya Gazeta photojournalist Sergei Kuksin places his subject in the most neutral and non-informative setting, allowing him to remain alone and tell the story by himself. According to Sergei Kuksin, when taking a psychological portrait the photographer’s main aim is to use the minimum of external expressive means. The surroundings often facilitate disclosure of the image. In this manner he has created portraits of Georgi Daneliya, Mark Zakharov, Yuri Bashmet, Fazil Iskander, Oleg Yankovsky, Igor Butman, Renata Litvinova, Yevgeny Primakov, Dmitry Medvedev, etc., as well as international stars like Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Giorgio Armani, Gérard Depardieu, Hugh Grant, Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Till Lindemann (singer with Rammstein), and others.

‘The psychological portrait is a special direction in the art of photography, revealing the most clandestine aspects of a person’s character,’ says Sergei Kuksin. ‘Photo artists use it as a portrait genre to reflect the breadth of the subject’s inner world, show experiences or feelings and penetrate to the finest recesses of their soul. Especially when applied to the most powerful people in this world, to famous or striking figures. Whether they are politicians, academics or actors. Although it might also be an incidental passer-by with a soulful face... You should be an invisible photographer, when the image is not the result of a reaction to you, when you become close, ‘familiar’, never distracting the subject from his own thoughts and deeds...’