Boris Savelev. Viewfinder - A way of looking (PHotoESPAÑA 2024. Official Section)

The latest edition of the PHotoESPAÑA festival presents the most extensive retrospective of the Ukranian photographer, Boris Savelev, to date. This exhibition can be seen at the Serrería Belga Cultural Space from 27 May to 14 July.

Curated by Adam Lowe, this exhibition spans the six decades over which Boris Savelev has captured everyday life in photos. Starting from his beginnings in black and white with his Iskra 6×6 and his Leica, moving on to colour in the 1980s with both Soviet Owarchrome and Western Kodachrome film, until the incorporation of digital technology, which he handles with the same mastery as analogue photography.

Boris Savelev (Chernivtsi, Ukraine, 1947) places a great deal of importance on the relationship between the photograph that is taken and its physical representation.  The complexity and slight surface texture characterising many of his prints is the result of a unique method in which the image is printed in multiple layers over a gesso base, similar to what is used in traditional painting.

Image Credits:

• Red Square Girls, Moscow, 1981 © Boris Savelev
• Red Paint, Madrid, 2001 © Boris Savelev
• Cafe Ion, Moscow, 2009 © Boris Savelev
• Broken Slide, Moscow, 1982 © Boris Savelev