Savelev’s early photograph “Black Tree” work was taken in the artist’s hometown, Chernowitz. It transforms what first appears to be an incidental snapshot into a tight assemblage of abstract picture elements. The precisely centered passageway with its static tree trunk strikes one as a cutout. Only the schematic light reflections on the ground and off to the right side make apparent that there is an “inside” and an “outside” to the picture space. There is but a fragile line where light and shadow meet, causing the eye to shift constantly from the realistic depth of the outside space to the abstract planarity of the dark interior.
Boris Savelev (*1948 in Chernowitz, Ukraine; living in Moscow)
Since 1982, the autodidact Boris Savelev has worked for publishing houses in Moscow and abroad. With the 1989 publication of Secret City he achieved international prominence as a representative of the new generation of photographers coming from the former Soviet Union. His work brings the tradition of Russian Constructivism into the context of urban modernity and synthesizes everyday motifs into poetic compositions of light and shadow.
