Catch the star

Come to our festival "Island of the 90s"!
The entrance is free. The program is here

From the author

A quarter of a century ago, it was much easier to photograph those who were called VIPs, celebrities, and sometimes celestials. Famous people were not surrounded by bodyguards, capturing reporters and closing lenses. Famous personalities were more accessible and open. No one forbade, for example, to remove officials from the back, which is much more expressive than the face. However, in those days there was still no quick paparazzi who were ready to “click” the famous person who took an absurd pose. Or break into a medical institution to shoot a helpless person in a hospital bed.

In the early 1990s, there was a period when friendly volleyball competitions between the national teams of the governments of Russia and Moscow were held in Silver Bor. Anyone could come to the third beach and see how the then Prime Minister Ivan Siloev falls into the mud, and the mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov accompanies the missed ball with a strong word. In between parties, Yuri Mikhailovich rushed into the water, sailed to the middle of the river, returned to the shore and answered the questions of journalists. At this time, the future billionaire Elena Baturina wiped her wife with a blue terry towel. Try to imagine the current metropolitan mayor gives an interview in my underpants!

On February 23, 1993, I calmly went to the territory of the Alexander Garden at the moment when Yeltsin, Luzhkov and Hasbulatov laid wreaths to eternal light. At the end of the ceremony, the mayor of Moscow, widely gesturing, told the President of Russia about how Manezhnaya Square would be transformed after a few years. On that day, the situation in the city was tense, the Communists fought with riot police on Tverskaya Street. And in the Alexander Garden, walking companies and mothers with strollers calmly walked past the “servants of the people”, waving paper flowers and photographing them with film “soapses”.

During rallies and demonstrations, no accreditation was required to approach the stands. Once I witnessed Andrei Sakharov’s speech. Megafon worked poorly, constantly sipel, swallowed sounds. Singing from the cold and hanging, the speaker spoke quietly, stuttering a little and coughing. It was almost impossible to make out anything. But when the academician finished his speech, the crowd exploded with applause. There was no metal and boiling in the voice of Sakharov, and in the eyes - the splendor of his own rightness. But he was believed only because he knew how to find not official, but understandable, completely human words.

In the nineties, the Russians were slightly different - it seems to me that more naive and simple -minded. Once I made a report on the opening of the exhibition of Alexander Vasiliev. Then he only returned from Paris, where he lived for ten years. The fashion historian decided to show the sketches of his decorations to French opera and ballet productions. On the walls hung paintings depicting theatrical costumes, curtains and backstage. In the center of the composition was a beautifully designed table. A slide of vegetables and fruits towered on it. At the base lay melons with velvety sides, multi -colored peppers and zucchini rested on them, then matte bananas walked, and a coconut pyramid with a hanging silk cloth was crowned. At the appointed hour, the doors opened. The audience burst into the hall. No one looked at the painting. Critics, art dealers and secular lions decided that they got to the buffet. At one point, nothing was left of still life. They even ate a coconut, splitting him about a silver door handle.

Representatives of the highest circles were also not bothering in the observance of secular etiquette. In 1997, financier George Soros came to Moscow for the anniversary of the Open Society Foundation. On the stage of the column hall of the House of Unions, welcoming speeches sounded for a long time. The solemn part finally ended. Soros went into the buffet, where tables for a banquet were set. Following the philanthropist, a group of men in unbuttoned jackets stretched. Everyone said something of his own, proving that it was he who urgently needed to get a grant. The translator did not have time for everyone. Soros looked tired and hungry. He stopped in front of a dish with pastries, took a pie and swallowed it in two tricks. It was evident that Soros liked the pie. The billionaire twisted his hands, asking him to be wrapped in a few more of the same pies with him.

In the mid -nineties, I worked on the set of social videos that were then popular. It was the "Russian project" of the ORT channel. In the series “Houses Better”, Nikita Mikhalkov and Vladimir Mashkov were shot. They played astronauts who landed in the capsule somewhere in the middle of the Kazakh steppe. According to the plot, they fall into the yurt of a nomad and eat their hands prepared for them pilaf. The director - Konstantin Ernst - did not satisfy one or the other. The scene was recovered many times. Mikhalkov could not stand it and said: "What do you want to remove the astronauts, pouring pilaf?" Ernst was generally very scrupulous about any little things during the filming and even taught actor the swamp Beishenaliev, who played the role of a nomad, to correctly charge the gun.

As a rule, people of creativity - artists, sculptors, poets, musicians, directors - easily came to contact with the photographer, without requiring vision of pictures before publication. In the nineties in a few minutes, I directly agreed on the phone with Yuri Lyubimov, Alexander Kalyagin, Zuraz Tsereteli, Boris Moiseev. Now it would be more difficult and would take much more time. The fullness of their greatness, the current “stars” communicate only through agents and bargains favorable conditions for themselves for a long time. They agree to pose only for covers and reject reporting pictures. Therefore, now less often you can see the living, albeit somewhat ironic, but warm portraits of celebrities. More often, invented, devoid of individuality, several false images come across. Few people understand that a person looks natural when the photographer has the opportunity to catch an unexpected, “spied” frame.

The festival "Island of the 90s" will take place. The entrance is free. The forecast is good.

Direct broadcast of the festival from all social networks - here
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The project is carried out with the support of the Foundation "Presidential Center B.N. Yeltsin ”(Yeltsin Center) , the educational portal“ Your History ” and the Museon Art Park .