A documentary photographer and a photo artist. Specialty and areas of no distinction

It is well known that photography can be documentary or staged. However, it is also well known that there is nothing simple, and photography can be documentary only to a certain extent and in a certain way. Photo image is linked to its epoch, and its yesterday's actuality can look ambiguous today. The history of medium gives a lot of examples how seemingly obvious «facts of life» appear to be craftily constructed lies and how documentary image changes its meaning under the influence of time, context, visual effects or explanatory text. And often the reason is irony of human perception and not the photo image itself. Being static and fragmentary, photo image is strikingly sensitive to variability of the world as a compound. Photography can be strictly technical reproduction and, at the same time, can function as sculpture, painting or graphic art, or serve as an element of multimedia installations without losing its documentary nature.

Vladimir Levashov (b. 1958) is an art and photo critic, curator, art director of Stella Art Foundation.