International Portfolio Review in Moscow
for Russian Photographers
Organized by: FotoFest International
IRIS Art Foundation
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
RIA Novosti
"...This unique event was absolutely necessary and important for Russian photographers.This is a new starting point of art photography in our country..."
Email from a Russian Photographer after the Moscow Portfolio Review
Portfolio Review Russia at Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia Photo by Vicki Bohannon
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow Photo by Fred Baldwin
FotoFest co-founder Fred Baldwin with Russian photographer
Alisa Nikulina at Garage Center for COntemporary Culture,
Moscow
The feeling in the great hall of the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow was electric. Two hundred Russian, Ukraine and Belarusian photographic artists were meeting face to face with 55 Reviewers - museum curators, publishers, gallery owners, and directors of non-profit art spaces from 17 countries and Russia. It was the first International portfolio review for artists of this kind and breadth in Russia.
The reviewers came from leading arts institutions such as the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Stedlijk Museum (Amsterdam), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the International Center for Photography (New York), La Fabrica – Benetton (Treviso, Italy) among many other organizations. Artists came from 39 cities across Russia, from cities in the far east to Moscow and St. Petersburg in the west, as well as the Ukraine and Belarus. They represented three generations of photographic artists. Some were in their 20s and early in their careers; others had worked before the Perestroika era and experienced the cultural isolation of the years before the 1980s.
The conversation was spirited and intense inside the formal portfolio review room. But it did not take long for the photographers, most of whom had never participated in this kind of event, to realize that among the most valuable aspects of the portfolio review is the informal networking, discussion and sharing of work between photographers.
Four hundred people attended the open evenings for photographers at the Garage Center. Elegant parties and a boat tour of Moscow filled the evenings for invited reviewers thanks to sponsorships from Sotheby’s, RIA Novosti, Garage, Beluga Vodka and the IRIS Art Foundation. When the Portfolio Review ended Friday, September 2, 2011, hundreds of photographers’ blogs hit the Internet and have continued ever since. Portfolios of over a hundred participating Russian photographers have been posted on reviewers’ websites and social media. For others, there are exhibitions, book publications and printed portfolios in the offing as well as the FotoFest 2012 Biennial – Contemporary Russian Photography.
The organizers of the Portfolio Review - Evgeny Berezner, Irina Chmyreva, Natalia Tarasova, Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss – are already thinking about the future. There are many people wondering – and hoping...
Russian artists sharing their work at the Portfolio Review Russia
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Russian artist showing work to a
reviewer at the Portfolio Review
Russia
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Portfolio Review Russia at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow
Photo by Petr Lovygin
Volunteer Nikolai Ishchuk (center) talking to Russian artists about available reviwer appointments at the
Portfolio Review Russia
Photo by Petr Lovygin
Russian artist showing work to a
reviewer at the Portfolio Review
Russia
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Russian artists showing their work at the Open Portfolio Walk, Portfolio Review Russia
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Russian artists sharing their work outside of the formail Portfolio Review Room
Portfolio Review Russia,
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Anton Belov, Director,
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Natalia Tarasova, Portfolio Review Russia Organizer
with press representatives
from the Garage Center
for Contemporary Culture
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Portfolio Review Russia Organizers Evgeny Berezner and Irina Chmyreva
at the Press Conference for Portfolio Review Russia
Anna Zelanova, Portfolio Review Russia Organizer, and Xavier Canonne, Portfolio
Reviewer and Director Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium
Photo by Fred Baldwin
FotoFest Co-Founder and Portfolio Review Russia organizer
Wendy Watriss and Tatiana Arzamasova,
member of the
well-known Russian artist team AES+F
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Anastasia Davydova-Sahaklos and Kirill Vasilenko, Portfolio Review
Russia Reviewers and
Directors of Special Projects at RIA Novosti,
organizing sponsor of Portfolio Review Russia
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Dasha Zhukova, Founder, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
at the Moscow>Houston Video Conference, Houston, Texas
FotoFest Meeting Place and
Portfolio
Review Russia
Coordinator Marta
Sanchez-
Philippe organizing badges
for portfolio reviewers
Photo by Fred Baldwin
FotoFest Co-Founder and Portfoliio Review Russia Organizer, Fred Baldwin (front), and Portfolio Reviewer
Enrico Bossan, Editor, Colors Magazine, Fabrica - Benetton at the Open Portfolio NIght at Portfolio Review
Russia, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
Andrey Bezukladinikov, PortfolioReviewer from Photographer.ru
celebrating the successful Portfolio Review Russia event
Photo by Fred Baldwin
U.S. Portfolio Reviewers from Santa Fe, N.M., Los Angeles, C.A. and Woodstock, N.Y.
celebrating the successful Portfolio Review Russia event
Photo by Fred Baldwin
Moscow during a night cruise on the Moscow River for Reviewers at Portfolio Review Russia. Photo by Fred Baldwin
Moscow at night from the top of the Suissotel. Photo by Fred Baldwin
