It's a strange feeling when a man living in the same time as you presents you with the archaeology of your time, your country, your history. I first saw Christoph Grill's work five years ago on a table during a portfolio review in Bratislava. These were photographs taken in the former Soviet Union. Many people photograph there. The post-Soviet reality is for young photographers....
We are all children of the provinces. Usually, when we talk about contemporary Russian photography, we mean photographs taken in Moscow and St. Petersburg or by photographers living in these two cities. Oleg Vidienin lives in Bryansk, thus violating the established stereotypes, he photographs his characteristic portraits of locals not as strangers, but in search of "man as a mirror, reflecting my state....