The Gift of Seeing It…

Moscow Department of Culture

Manege Association

Private view: 21 December, 19.00

On December 21, the Manege Central Hall will host the opening of a photo exhibition of a well-known Russian cameraman, Anatoly Zabolotsky.

Timed to celebrate the photographer’s sixty years of work, the show will feature more than 400 photographs dating to the period from 1955 till 2015 including more than 40 landscape panoramas of Russia’s most beautiful places and more than 100 portraits, as well as books and photo books.

Zabolotsky has used film to create a universe of his own – take, for instance, his series “Autumn in Altai. Ulagansky District” and “Life in the brown bear preserve at Kurile Lake (Kamchatka).”

The show will also feature many portraits of prominent people including Vasily Shukshin and Fr. John (Krestiankin), Vasily Belov and Georgy Zhzhenov, Oleg Volkov and Fedor Abramov, Valentin Rasputin and Vladimir Soloukhin, Viktor Astafyev and Ivan Ryzhov, Mikhail Yevdokimov and Vyacheslav Klykov, Viktor Likhonosov, Fedor Konuyhov, Alexander Mikhailov.

The closest remarks on Zabolotsky’s works came from Valentin Rasputin: “It is a collection of figures, faces, eyes and moods; it is a series of “stage appearances” by humans and nature; it is a gallery of the earthly and the heavenly, the sublime and the trivial coming amiably together, of something painfully dear you would embrace heartily and something detached and observing wisely through the depth of the centuries as ancient manuscripts; the world of many faces and many voices creating in unison the tune of being – it all is capable of thrusting you in joy and embarrassing you completely… This opening of the almost patriarchal, nearly dreamed-up, though absolutely real and continuing life found in quiet corners is all beauty, serenity, eternity, harmony…”

Camera director Zabolotsky shot 15 feature film, among which are “Cherez Kladbishche” (“Through the Graveyard”) included by UNESCO in the list of the 100 best films on the World War II, “Alpiyskaya Ballada” (“The Alpine Ballad“), “Bezumie” (“Madness”), “Slovo Dlya Zashchity” (“A Word for the Defence”), “Obryv” (“The Precipice”), “Vse Vperedi” (“The Best is Yet to Come”). However, his most significant works are movies “Pechki-Lavochki” (“Happy-Go-Lucky”) and “Kalina Krasnaya” (“The Red Snowball Tree”), which forged the creative alliance and friendship between Zabolotsky and V. Shukshin. Films will be shown in the Manege rooms, with the first screening scheduled of the “Posledny Khleb” (“The Last Bread”) movie, which has never hit the screen before. It was the first work by Zabolotsky as a cameraman and one of the first movies starring G. Zhzhenov after his years in exile. Visitors will also have a chance to appreciate Zabolotsky’s work in the documentary genre, particularly films “Slova Materi” (“Mother’s Words”) about M. Shukshina, “Melochi Zhizni” (“Trifles”) telling the story of the actress who played Yegor’s mother in “The Red Snowball Tree”, “Yubilei V. Belova” (“V. Belov’s Anniversary”), “Paleograph Lavochkin” (“Paleograph Lavochkin”), etc.

The show program will feature talks of Viktor Likhonosov, Vladimir Krupin, Fedor Konuyhov, Alexey Petrenko, Alexander Mikhailov, Oleg Mityaev and others.

The exhibition has been made possible through the patronage of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company and General Director Andrey Kozitsyn.

Anatoly Zabolotsky is willing to donate all exhibits of this show to any state museum of the Russian Federation that would maintain the integrity of the collection.

Admission will be free of charge during the New Year holiday season.

Contact the organizers:

+7 916 089 48 63

Media Contacts:

Manege MEA | +7 (495) 645-92-76| pr.manege@gmail.com

Head of PR Department Elena Karneeva | e.karneeva@moscowmanege.ru, +7 (926) 576-40-53