Boris Mikhailov: The Hasselblad Award 2000
by: Knape, Gunilla

Hardcover. New York, Scalo Verlag , 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 144 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy still in publishers shrink-wrap. This book contains a never-before published series of work from the early 1980s: Mikhailov photographed ''The Dancers'' in his hometown in the Ukraine during a period when the former Soviet Union was a reality, before the appearance of Gorbachov and "perestroika". We observe the open-air dancing scene with great astonishment; seeing older and younger people enjoy themselves in a way that might be contradictory to the images we might have about everyday life in the old Soviet Union. These cheerful images remind us how little women and men need to have a good time. An essay by Russian art critic Boris Groys and an exhaustive interview make this volume a must have for readers and libraries interested in contemporary art and photography. 65 duotone illustrations.