Yevgeniy Pavlov

About Yevgeniy Pavlov

Yevgeniy Pavlov (UA, 1949) started his photography career in the late 1960s. He graduated from the V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University and the Cinematography Department of the I.K. Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Film, and Television. He worked as the head of the photo laboratory at the Sitenko Kharkiv Research Institute of Orthopedics and Traumatology. He is one of the founders of the Kharkiv School of Photography. In 1971, along with Jury Rupin, he initiated the creation of a group called Vremia (Time) with Boris Mikhailov, Oleg Maliovany, Oleksandr Suprun, among others, which became a prominent center for provocative photography in the Soviet Union. He lives and works in Graz. He is a lecturer in the television department at the National Academy of Culture in Kharkiv.

Photographic approach of Yevgeniy Pavlov

His series "The Violin" (1972) is one of his most iconic works. It was a spontaneous performance that took place in the context of the era's interest in rock culture and resulted in a photo session featuring naked male subjects.

Yevgeniy Pavlov experimented with a wide range of techniques, from overlays and color superimpositions ("Orwochrome series" 1974-1987) to collages and hand coloring in the late 1980s and early 1990s ("Archive series" 1988).

He also collaborated with the painter Volodymyr Shaposhnykov, which marked a significant turning point in his career. This collaboration led to several series of hand-colored photographs: "Common Field" (1996), "Parnography" (1998), and "Another Heaven" (2007).

Exhibitions

He participated in numerous group exhibitions across Europe such as New Soviet Photography in the Scandinavian countries (1988), the Center for Photography in Sweden (1991), the Museum of Industrial Culture in Nuremberg (1993), and solo exhibitions notably during the International Month of Photography in Bratislava (1994) and at the Little Odessa Gallery in Paris (2019). His works are housed in 14 museums across Europe, the United States, notably at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and also in Japan.

Art Book Publications by Yevgeniy Pavlov

Yevgeniy Pavlov's projects are not only exhibited but also published in book form. Among them is the famous series "The Violin" (1972), depicting young naked male hippies, initially published in Fotografia magazine in Poland (1973) and as a book in Ukraine (2018).

Another major publication of his work is "Home Life Book" (2014), a series of black and white images portraying the artist's daily life. Spanning from street photography to still life and even portraiture, this work symbolizes an existential vision of life itself.

With "Total Photography" (2016), Pavlov explores the effects that image destruction can produce, emphasizing them through color and translating the language of painting into photography.