About the Ukrainian photographer, Boris MIKHAILOV (b. 1938, in Kharkov)

Boris MIKHAILOV belongs to the first generation of the Kharkiv school of photography. He first graduated from the Kharkov Technical University in 1962 as an electrical engineer, then worked at the Kharkov transport companies and from 1963 to 1968 in rocket construction. Along the way, he created his first self-taught films and photographs. After the KGB found his nude photos of his wife, he lost his job because of the accusation of pornography. He found a new job as an engineer and began to devote more time to photography in his spare time. Before his photographs were exhibited in large format, he compiled them in books. Until 1990, his works were not allowed to be exhibited publicly in the Soviet Union. He became internationally known after the collapse of the Soviet Union for his pictures of homeless people taken in the late 1990s. In 1994 he came to the American state of New York through an artist-in-residence program, and in 1996 - also with a grant - to Germany for the first time. Further German scholarships followed (1996/1997). Today he is considered one of the most respected artists of the former USSR. Boris MIKHAILOV lives with his wife Vita in Kharkov and Berlin.

Photo books by and on the work of Boris MIKHAILOV

'Boris Michaijlov' (1995); 'Wenn ich ein Deutscher wäre…' (1995); 'Am Boden. Die Dämmerung' (1996); 'Unfinished Dissertation' (1998); 'Case History' (1999); 'The Hasselblad Award 2000' (2000); 'Salt Lake' (2002); 'Eine Retrospektive' (2003); 'Look at me I look at water' (2004); 'Crimean snobism' (2006); 'Suzi et cetera' (2006); 'Yesterday's Sandwich' (2007, 2009); 'Maquette Braunschweig' (2010); 'Tea Coffee Cappuccino' (2010); 'Time is out of joint' (2010); ' The Wedding' (2010); 'Krymskaja Fotomanija' (2013); 'Books' (2013); 'Kaiserring 2015' (2015); 'I am not I' (2016); 'Suzi et Cetera. Part 2' (2019); 'Series of Four' (2019); 'Temptation of Life' (2019); 'Viscidity' (2020)

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Crossfading of human bodies in the karst coastal landscape of the Crimean peninsula. The protagonists were taken from contemporary history & the present. MIKHAILOV reproduces here the history of photographic image production in resolution and form finding
398,00 € *
For 'I've Been Here Once Before', filmmaker David Teboul selected stills from a documentary about Boris MIKHAILOV, which fill books' middle section. Cleverly arranged, the single motifs create the impression of a cinematic sequence as you turn the pages.
from 19,80 € Weight 0.7 kg
HC with dust jacket, 21 x 27,5 x 2,5 cm., 176 pp., 60 coloir & 35 duotone b/w ills., bilingual text: English / German
68,00 € * Weight 1.1 kg
In the Soviet era, Ukrainian waiters asked 'tea or coffee?' The addition is an expression of the economic changes that MIKHAILOV examines using the example of his hometown Kharkov. Have the promises of salvation of the 'Orange Revolution' been fulfilled?
0,00 € *
Pb. with American dust jacket, 24 x 28 cm., 184 pp., 94 color & 27 b/w ills., trilingual text: English, German, Russian Available Artist: Beat Schweizer Editor: Kanton Bern, WERK-BUCH / ŒUVRE D’ARTISTE Texts: Tanja Achlomova, Mischa Danov, Urs Mannhart,
39,00 € *
HC with dust jacket, 29 x 25 cm., 144 pp., b/w ills., text language: English
from 28,00 € Weight 0.8 kg
'The Wedding' by Boris MIKHAILOV contains a photo series of a simulated wedding between two homeless people, in the midst of their own environment. It is bound in imitation of a traditional wedding album, with imitation leather and gold embossed lettering
from 148,00 € Weight 0.5 kg
Pb. (no dust jacket, as issued), 22,5 x 156 cm., 204 pp., 101 color ills., text language: English
0,00 € *
Out-of-print catalog 'Architektur der Obdachlosigkeit (of Homelessness) shows works by Boris MIKHAILOV, Ulrike MYRZIK/Manfred JARISCH, Dayanita SINGH, Wolfgang TILLMANS, John VINK as well as Wolfgang BELLWINKEL and their artistic positions on this topic.
0,00 € *
MIKHAILOV's chronicle of the stark reality of a historical transition and a moving work of art that offers a bold, radically open perspective on the human body. 'Case History' represents a book that depicts life in all its contradictions and extremes.
0,00 € *
Prizes and Awards

1996: Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation Award, Zürich
1997: Albert Renger-Patzsch-Preis der Stiftung Dietrich Oppenberg
2000: The Hasselblad Award in Photography, Göteborg, Sweden
2001: Citibank Photography Prize
2000: Foto-Buchpreis der Krazna-Krausz-Stiftung, London (Kraszna-Krausz Book Award) für 'Case History'
2003: General Satellite corporation art prize, (Beitrag über die Entwicklung der zeitgenössischen Kunst in Moskau)
2012: Spectrum - Internationaler Preis für Fotografie der Stiftung Niedersachsen
2015: Goslarer Kaiserring
2021: Taras-Schewtschenko-Preis

Single exhibitions (a selection)

1990: 'The Missing Picture, Alternative Zeitgenössische Fotografie aus der Sowjetunion', List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge & Union Bank Collection, Helsinki; 'Boris Mikhailov: Arles - Paris 1989', Signalhallen, Armémuseum, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
1992: 'Werke von 1970 bis 1991', Forum Stadtpark, Graz
1993: 'Salt Lake', Galerie in der Brotfabrik, Berlin
1994: 'Dämmerung', Brotfabrik Berlin & Foto Festival Rotterdam
1996: Kunsthalle Zürich; 'A Retrospective', Soros Center of Contemporary Art, Kiev
1997: 'Photomania', DAAD Galerie, Berlin; 'Crimean Grafomania', Brotfabrik, Berlin
1998: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; 'Les Misérables', Sprengel Museum Hannover; 'Nobuyoshi Araki & Boris Mikhailov', Galerie Satani, Tokyo
1999: 'Case History', DAAD Galerie, Berlin; Scalo Galerie, Zurich
2000: Saatchi Gallery, London
2001: 'Case History and Heiner Müller Project', Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2003: 'Private Freuden, lastende Langeweile, öffentlicher Zerfall', Fotomuseum Winterthur
2004: Kunsthalle Villa Kobe, Halle (Saale); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
2005: Centre de la Photographie, Geneve, Frankreich; 'Look at me, I look at water'; Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam
2007: 'Schau auf mich, ich schau aufs Wasser, oder Perversion der Ruhe', Sprengel Museum Hannover; Barbara Gross Galerie, München; Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo
2011: 'Case History', Museum of Modern Art, New York
2012: 'Time is out of joint. Fotografien 1966 - 2011', Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
2013: 'Spectrum' Internationaler Preis für Fotografie der Stiftung Niedersachsen: 'Die Bücher 1968-2012', Sprengel Museum Hanover
2015 'Boris Mikhailov. Ukraine', Camera, Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Turin; 'Kaiserringträger der Stadt Goslar 2015', Mönchshaus Museum Goslar; 'Profiles and...', Barbara Gross Galerie, München; 'io non sono io', Museo Madre, Naples
2019: 'Boris Mikhailov', c/o Berlin, Berlin, Deutschland