Sergei Petrov
out of darkroom
A journey from film to digital photography
ABOUT
For thirty years Sergei Petrov has been on a journey. It is partly a journey through time and space - from his original home in Russia, through Western Europe and especially France, then to North America and his present home on Pender Island. But Sergei’s journey has also been aesthetic, pursuing images through media that have themselves evolved over this thirty-year span.
Sergei began working within the idiom of the classic tradition of photography. His image ‘Lady on the Red Square’ (1983) has rightly become iconic, reproduced internationally in many different forms and places. Rather than simply pursue further work in this idiom, Sergei chose to move on in his abiding ambition to ‘capture the moment.’ He did not confine his work to the techniques traditionally employed in photography but instead sought means of harnessing novel technologies in capturing and reproducing visual images. The growing possibilities opened up by the development of digital technology thus allowed him to pursue his aesthetic quest in new directions.
One obvious way in which Sergei’s work has changed, as his journey has progressed, has been a shift from representational to more abstract works. As well as the image in itself, the technical means by which it has been captured and reproduced has assumed increasing significance and depth. Works like his pioneering studies of mannequins illustrate this transition - in them the representation of the women’s bodies is in tension with the unique qualities of the medium used. He is painting with light in a new way.
In Sergei Petrov’s most recent work, made by hand with digitally-created textures (OBRAZ), the outcome is simultaneously an exercise in advanced technology and an expression of an acute aesthetic sensibility. But common to the whole progression of his career has been the same abiding ambition. Sergei still wants to ‘capture the moment’, but no longer a particular moment trapped in time and space but a moment that he has himself created through the evolution of the work itself.
GALLERYALL
Amaryllis XII
2025
digital image
Gowland Point II
2025
digital image
Clouds
2024
digital image
Sky
2024
digital image
Two Eggs
2024
digital image
Begonia Flowers
2023
digital image
Blood Iris
2023
digital image
Man in a Hat II
2023
digital image
Onion Skin V
2023
digital image
Oyster Shells
2023
digital image
Parrot Tulips
2023
digital image
Psychedelic Tulips
2023
digital image
Tulips Arrangement
2023
digital image
Tulips Pair
2023
digital image
Two Onions
2023
digital image
White Tulip
2023
digital image
Gonzales Bay
2022
digital image
Man in a Hat
2022
digital image
Peacock
2022
digital image
Purple Iris
2022
digital image
Simple
2022
digital image
Tulip Day
2022
digital image
Tulip Night
2022
digital image
Tulip Rain
2022
digital image
Zuccini
2022
digital image
Tulip Leaf
2021
digital image
Amaryllis XI
2020
digital image
Cabbage
2020
digital image
Martini
2020
digital image
Amarillys X
2019
digital image
Brooks Point
2019
digital image
Sand
2019
digital image
Tofino
2019
digital image
Tulip
2019
digital image
Zuccini Flower
2019
OBRAZ
Begonia Leaf
2018
OBRAZ
Blue Iris
2018
OBRAZ
Four Orchids
2018
OBRAZ
Lily
2018
OBRAZ
Father and Daughter
2017
digital image
Glass
2017
digital image
Gowland Point
2017
digital image
Orchid Flower
2017
digital image
Pender Island
2017
digital image
Sail
2017
digital image
Wim
2016
digital image
Bluffs
2015
digital image
Brugge
2015
digital image
Range
2015
digital image
Black Rose
2014
digital image
Onion VII
2014
OBRAZ
Red Onion Skin
2014
digital image
Boat
2013
digital image
Bottles IV
2013
OBRAZ
Dry Orchid
2013
OBRAZ
Leaf
2013
OBRAZ
Onion Skin
2013
OBRAZ
Umbria
2013
digital image
Golden Orchids
2012
OBRAZ
Lahoe
2012
OBRAZ
Tangerine
2012
OBRAZ
Tulips Dance
2012
OBRAZ
Tulips Fairy
2012
OBRAZ
Death of an Orchid
2011
OBRAZ
Egg and Paper
2011
silver negative 18x24 cm
Onion Skin III
2011
OBRAZ
Red Bottles
2011
OBRAZ
Tulip X
2011
OBRAZ
Field
2010
digital image
Iris III
2010
OBRAZ
Iris V
2010
OBRAZ
White Rock
2010
digital image
Dark Sails
2009
digital image
Sails
2009
digital image
White Sails
2009
digital image
Domburg I
2008
digital image
Domburg II
2008
digital image
Domburg III
2008
digital image
Domburg IX
2008
digital image
Domburg X
2008
digital image
Domburg XI
2008
digital image
Domburg XII
2008
digital image
Domburg XIII
2008
digital image
Domburg XV
2008
digital image
Tulips Angel
2008
digital image
Tulips Pair
2008
digital image
Tulips Swan
2008
digital image
Driftwood
2007
digital image
Hands Touching
2004
digital image
Kari
2004
digital image
Leta
2004
digital image
Christina Day
2003
digital image
Christina Night
2003
digital image
Dream
2003
digital image
Garlic VII
2003
digital image
Amaryllis I
2002
digital image
Amaryllis II
2002
digital image
Amaryllis V
2002
digital image
Dance
2002
digital image
Garlic V
2002
digital image
Hand I
2002
digital image
Hand II
2002
digital image
Nautilus
2002
digital image
Red Onion
2002
digital image
Sanctus
2002
digital image
Himena
1998
digital image
Asya
1995
digital image
Bottles Dark
1993
silver negative 30x40 cm
Bottles White
1993
silver negative 30x40 cm
Cube
1993
silver negative 9x12 cm
Mannequin I
1993
silver negative 18x24 cm
Mannequin II
1993
silver negative 18x24 cm
Mannequins III
1993
silver negative 18x24 cm
Mannequins IV
1993
silver negative 18x24 cm
Sheri
1993
silver negative 18x24 cm
Dress
1991
silver negative 30x40 cm
Lali
1990
silver negative 18x24 cm
Man in a Dark Cloth
1989
silver negative 18x24 cm
Masha
1987
silver negative 18x24 cm
Motherpearl
1987
silver negative 18x24 cm
Necklace
1987
silver negative 18x13 cm
Egg and Shell
1986
silver negative 35mm
Sphere
1986
silver negative 18x24 cm
Anna
1985
color negative 35mm
Ball Cylinder and Light
1985
silver negative 18x24 cm
Ball and Cone
1985
silver negative 13x18 cm
Ball and Disk
1985
silver negative 18x24 cm
Ball and Egg
1985
silver negative 18x24 cm
Ball and Prizm
1985
silver negative 18x24 cm
Broken Glass
1985
silver negative 18x24 cm
Domes
1985
silver negative 35mm
Girl in a Red Hat
1985
color negative 35mm
Hat
1985
silver negative 9x12 cm
Mental Patient
1985
silver negative 35mm
Easter Night
1983
color negative 35mm
Lady on the Red Square
1983
silver negative 35mm
Bridge
1982
silver negative 35mm
Eyes
1976
silver negative 35mm
OBRAZ
OBRAZ (образ) Translates as 'image' but in Russian it also means 'order', 'method', 'organization', 'way' like 'Образ мыслей' = 'a way of thinking'. It also means 'icon' in spiritual sense, not just an image as object, but as a subject as well. In other words something that looks back at you when you look at it.
On this website OBRAZ is used to describe images made by hand with digitally-created textures, a unique technique that has no precedent and warrants a special name.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Moscow in 1953, Sergei Petrov graduated from the elite Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. His professional photographic career started in 1978 when Sergei left his position as a researcher in the Soviet defense industry and began working for leading Russian publishing houses. He photographed sculpture and paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.
In 1981 Sergei Petrov became a dissident, first coming to international attention in 1982 when he spent 50 days on a hunger strike trying to win permission to emigrate. While unable to leave the Soviet Union, Sergei completed a number of assignments for western magazines including Architectural Digest, Discover, New York Times Magazine, and Le Figaro. His photo journalistic work, critical of the old Soviet regime, appeared in The Washington Post and The New York Times. His image Lady on the Red Square became the symbol of a stagnant Soviet regime and was featured on NBC’s Today show and in many magazines and newspapers.
In 1988 an “in absentia” exhibition of his work was opened at the State Department in Washington DC by former US Secretary of State George Shultz. The following year Sergei was finally permitted to leave the Soviet Union, the culmination of years of sustained pressure from the US Government and, in particular, President Reagan and the US Ambassador to Moscow Arthur Hartman and his wife Donna.
His art was featured in American Photographer and The Washington Post Magazine. In 1991 The Corcoran Gallery of Art purchased his work.
In 1990's Sergei taught at International College of Photography
Cahors, France
Since 2020 he has been teaching 'Photographing art in the digital age' for Graduate Skills Training Programme at Cambridge University, Faculty of Architecture & History of Art
Cambridge, UK
Currently Sergei lives and works on Pender Island in British Columbia, Canada. He continues to pursue his passion for art along with his other interest in woodworking.
EXHIBITIONS
“Masterpieces of the Russian Underground”, Lincoln Center, New York, 2003
"Dress", permanent collection, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1991
“Abstraction in Photography”, Zabriski Gallery, New York, 1990
U.S. Department of State, Washington, 1988 opened by former US Secretary of State George Shultz
Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, 1987
American University, Paris, 1985
Spaso House, Residence of US Ambassador, Moscow, 1983
© 2020 Sergei Petrov