Translated material
“Black and white. Stars "
Without the work of this photographer, it is no longer possible to imagine Hello magazine! Thanks to Vladimir Shirokov, readers of the most famous publication about the life of the stars were able to look at their idols in a completely different way: Shirokov’s works are devoid of ostentatious “glossy”, their main dignity is subtle psychologism. Like the gaze of a talented artist, the lens of Shirokov is able to catch in a person those features that make him dissimilar to others and, at the same time, they are distinguished with a multimillion -dollar audience: Christina Orbakaite from the show -business star turns into an exemplary mother, Naina Yeltsin - from her first lady surrounded by grandchildren. Even Philip Kirkorov, under the lens of Shirokov, briefly ceases to be a character in secular chronicles and becomes a thoughtful person slightly tired of his own glory.
Comparison with the portraitist artist is not accidental. Shirokov dreamed about such a career since childhood and even entered the art school. But, alas, the teachers did not see his talent in him. “I couldn’t even be a horse really,” it turned out to be incomprehensible! It’s like in music when I want to sing and there’s no voice, ”the photographer today recalls this with a smile, but then they took his resentment and a sense of protest,“ he decided to change his hands and easel to the camera forever.
The "star hour" Shirokova came in the middle of the restless 90s, when the kiosks with the press was spent with new products - Cosmopolitan magazines, "Brownie" and the glossy Russian came to life.
Today, ten years later, Vladimir Shirokov is one of the most famous and sought -after Russian photographers. Shirokov’s photo shoot is a kind of pass to the world of “big stars” for dozens of novice singers and actors. Many of those who were once glorified by the camera of the maestro have become his good friends today. Although the photographer himself claims: in order for the shooting to be able to be at all to be friends with the model: "The main thing is that there is human sympathy. I think this is quite enough."
Shirokov has never been a fashion photograph. "Fashionable" shooting is work with a kind of "mannequins", symbols. The main goal here is to demonstrate clothes. I remove, first of all, living people. My task is to show the state of mind, ”he explains.
Ivan Urgant, Ingeborg Dapkunaite, Nikolai Baskov, Tatina Arno, Nikolai Karachentsov and Lyudmila Porgina, Renata Litvinova, Maxim Galkin, Valentin Yudashkin and many, many others. Looking at the photographs made by Vladimir Shirov, you understand: stars, they are the same people as we are all. Unless, with the photographer they are lucky a little more.