Sergey Bratkov: Glory Days

Ukrainian photographer Sergey Bratkov is internationally acclaimed for his powerful images of contemporary Russia and expressive portraits. But despite his many global exhibitions, his work has rarely been published. Sergey Bratkov remedies this lacuna with a survey of his influential photographic oeuvre.

Raised and educated in the Soviet Union, Bratkov has spent his career training his penetrating camera gaze on the fractured lives and bleak structures that pervade the region. Some of the images presented here are unsparing documents of daily life following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Poverty, prostitution, and homelessness are only a few of the issues he tackles through his striking photos. In his expressive portraits, he strips away the ideological clichés of the communist years—and subsequent bland slogans of hope for Eastern European capitalism—to reveal the complex reality.  Featured essays by art scholars draw out the social and artistic criticism embedded in Bratkov’s work, while not denying the powerful lyricism of his images.

The catalog to accompany the upcoming exhibition at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Sergey Bratkov will be essential for art scholars and historians alike.