Europe Week: Oleg Videnin

Europe Week: Oleg Videnin by Aline SmithsonNovember 16, 2012

Guest editor, Jacqueline Roberts shares a week of European photographers, today with Oleg Videnin. A huge thank you to Jacqueline for her insight and efforts.

Oleg Videnin was born in Bryansk (Russia) in 1963. Trained as a forestry engineer, he eventually worked in newspapers, radio, and television, becoming a member of the Russian Union of Journalists. His childhood interest in photography grew into a full-fledged passion in the late 1990s, his work has since gained international recognition. Oleg has had solo exhibition in Russia, Serbia, Australia, and the United States, and has been featured in numerous magazines. His photographs are included in the collections of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, as well as in private collections in Russia and abroad. Oleg lives with his family in Bryansk.

Russians

“I was going round the world searching for an interesting place, when I realized that the place that I was in was already interesting.” Emmet Gowin

Jacqueline states: When I first saw Oleg’s work I was riveted by the strong connection that exists between him and the people he photographs. Like an August Sander, Oleg has been meticulously photographing his region, his town, his people and his neighbours. Young and old, men and women, jubilant and despondent, communities and outsiders… his work is very much local and documental. Yet it is the universal dimension and the emotional quality of his portraits that keeps me coming back to his images….