OLEG KLIMOV, documentary photographer
Occupation:
freelancer of Panos pictures, UK
Co-founder of Liberty.SU, Foundation of Documentary Photography, RU
Education:
The state University, astrophysics
Contacts:
[email protected]
+79160124363 (tel, whats app)
Postal address:
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Résumé | CV:
Born in Siberia in 1964. Studied at Kazan state University and majored in astrophysics. Since 1991 has worked as a photographer for the Dutch influential daily newspaper NRC-Handelsblad. Covered all war conflicts in the USSR and Eastern Europe. During 1991-1993 in collaboration with Dutch journalist Hubert Smeets published a book on Russia “Offended souls. Liberty in Russia” and with support from NRC-Handelsblad newspaper published a book “The collapse of the Soviet Empire”. The end of 1999 in collaboration with Dutch photographer Maurice Boyer published a book on the Kosovo events “Between Belgrad and Skopje. Photographs of the Kosovo War”.
In 1990 – exhibition “The last day of Sakharov’s life”, supported by “The Washington Post” newspaper, Washington DC. In 1994 – exhibition “Caucasian snipers”, Georgian-Abkhazian war 1992-1993, Naarden foto-festival, the Netherlands. In 2000 with assistance from the Soros Foundation Oleg Klimov made the exhibition It’s Just a War” and shows it all over Russia.
«Oleg Klimov thinks while he photographs and the other way around. This requires an explanation. While looking at his pictures there is never a 100% clarity on what is more important: his perception of the object or the representation of the object itself. Take, for instance, an image from the city of Sukhumi. There are three men in military uniform and a woman. The first man is playing the piano, another is cleaning his machinegun and the third one is embracing the crying woman. What is happening here? One can imagine almost anything. It is just a war, and it is here, in Abkhazia». [NRC*Handelsblad]
In 2001 worked on the large project about the Volga river shown at Prozrenie biennale in Nizhny Novgorod. In 2003: exhibition “To Russia with love” and in 2007: exhibition about racism “Black and White Russia” – by Amnesty Internation (Amsterdam-London) . In 2013 exhibition “Along the shores of Russia” in Huis Marseille, Photography museum of the Netherlands, Amsterdam.
«Oleg Klimov changes his plans often. To him photography is not an aim, but a mean of a constant comparison of views and ideas about a Man and the world he lives in. A photographer can do it wherever he wishes: at the bar, at the filling station, aboard a ship». [NRC*Handelsblad]
In 2005 his book on the consequences of the Soviet Union collapse “Heritage of an Empire” was published in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, exhibition in Amsterdam, Huis Marseille, Photography museum of the Netherlands.
Since 2005 he’s been more interested to photo projects and been teaching documentary photography in the Rodchenko school of photography and Multimedia. In 2012 his finished project on the Russian water borders From the river to the Sea.
From 2010 and till now he’s founder of Liberty.SU – documentary photography network on the territory of the former USSR.
Documentary movie “Letters to myself” (2013) «Longing for inner peace Oleg returns to some of the areas where he has photographed during wartime. In addition to Oleg Klimov’s memories other realities arise: those of the people he then photographed» [Zeppers and Ikon production, the Netherlands]
During two years navigation (2013 and 2014), Oleg Klimov is one of the crew yachting photo-expedition From White to Black Sea.
«Acknowledging that the crew also considered themselves artists in addition to documentarians, Oleg Klimov said that he sees the project more as «new journalism,» telling the story of the photographers’ expedition through snapshots that give a sense of the emotional aspect of the team’s travels». [The Moscow Times]
In 2015, Oleg Klimov already indwell in the Far East of Russia (Sakhalin island) and is working for the photobook No Man Is An Island — a visual anthropology project, based on the Anton Chekhkov’s book Sakhalin Island.