Accompanying Image / Photo Example:
Sergey Bratkov, No Paradise 1, 1995, black and white Silver Print, 8 x 8", courtesy of the artist
Logo:
Address:
39 East Court St.
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone:
(513) 651-3105
Monday through Friday 9 am–5 pm
and by appointment
URL:
http://www.photosmith1.com/
Description:
An Open Studio Featuring the Work of Ukrainian Photographer, Sergey Bratkov
October 1–October 31
Exhibition Reception
Thursday October 18, 5 pm–8 pm
The work of Moscow-based Bratkov remains heavily influenced by Kharkiv, his birthplace, an industrial city characterized by misery, poverty, and a devastated landscape. Bratkov worked for years with Boris Mikhailov and the underground group, Vremia, developing his radical realist style and confronting social taboos. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian and Ukrainian photography reconstructed itself according to the Western tradition, while maintaining a unique identity due to its original form and content. Bratkov must be considered in both the Soviet and post-Soviet context, having worked in and transformed such permitted subject matter as architecture and labor, while confronting taboo themes such as male nudity. The resistant and progressive "Fast Reaction Group," of which Bratkov was a member, grew out of this movement. Photosmith will showcase Bratkov's Soviet subject matter as well as his underground and post-Soviet work. Bratkov and Smith met in 1992 as part of a sister city exchange between Cincinnati, Ohio and Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Photosmith is a working artist's studio as well as commercial studio and host for photography open houses, artist's bazaars, and house concerts. Founded in 1987 by Brad Austin Smith, Photosmith is directed by Smith and his wife, Suzanne Fleming-Smith. The entry on the street level is next to It's Just Crepes restaurant. A buzzer on the ground level provides access to the second floor studio space.