Alexey Titarenko received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Department of Cinematic and Photographic Art at Leningrad’s Institute of Culture in 1983.
Major photo series include “City of Shadows” (1992-1994), “Black and White Magic of St. Petersburg” (1995-1997), and “Time Standing Still” (1998-1999). In those series Titarenko paints a bitter picture of a Russia (seen through the lens of St. Petersburg), where people live in a world of unrealized hopes and where time seems to have stopped.
http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/about.html
What I am fascinated of, especially in Alexey Titarenkos “City of Shadows”, is the way he compresses the individual body movement to a depressing, homogeneous structure. By this it’s all about the mass of the people, no character comes to show any unique individuality. In particular in his “Time standing still”, Titarenko in a clear way show characters who for some reason not follow the flow of the mass. Many of his pictures give the impression of melancholy and depression and all of them draw my attention for another moment.
