Mikhailov Boris Andreevich

Boris Andreevich Mikhailov (Ukrainian: Борис Андрійович Михайлов; born August 25, 1938, Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR) is a Soviet and Ukrainian artist and photographer.

Biography:

Mikhailov was trained as an engineer. He began his creative career and photographic experiments in Kharkiv. In the late 1960s, he held his first exhibition. After KGB officers discovered photographs of his nude wife and accused him of pornography, he was forced to leave his engineering job at the Kharkiv factory and took up various odd jobs, devoting all his free time to photography. Since 1998, he has dedicated himself fully to art, creating documentary photographs of everyday life. His most famous series from 1968 to 1975 is the 'Red Series,' which features people, their living conditions, and city life, using red as a dominant color—a symbol of the October Revolution, the Communist Party, and the social structure of Soviet society. For the 1982 work 'Klebrigkeit,' Mikhailov added a note explaining that he used his works as diary entries. His 'Case History' series explores the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse for those living under those conditions, systematically photographing homeless people and members of the lumpenproletariat, who trusted him and agreed to candid shots. Over 500 photographs depict people unable to find their place in life or secure a decent existence in the new social system after the Soviet collapse. Mikhailov frankly and directly criticizes the 'mask of beauty' and analyzes the spontaneous rejection of the post-Soviet capitalist way of life—these are some of his most iconic and best series.

He is the only Ukrainian recipient of the international 'Hasselblad Award,' which he won in 2000. In 2008, he was elected a member of the Academy of Visual Arts in Berlin. He lives and works in Berlin and Kharkiv.

Works can be found in the collections of:
MoMA (New York), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Tate Modern (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Frans Hals Museum (Haarlem, Holland), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich), MUSAC (León, Spain), Ludwig Museum (Cologne), Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Chicago), National Museum of Art (Osaka), Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin), AGSA (Adelaide), Museum Folkwang (Essen), Berlinische Galerie, Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), ART4 Museum (Moscow), Moscow House of Photography/MAMM, State Center for Contemporary Art (Moscow), Berlin Art Library, DAAD Berliner Kunstprogramm (Berlin), Berlin City Gallery, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Sprengel Museum (Hanover), Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), BMW Bank Collection, DZ Bank Collection, Deutsche Bank Collection, Saatchi Collection (London).

Selected personal exhibitions:
2013 — 'U N R E S P E C T A B L E', YermilovCentre, Kharkiv
2009 — 'Place, Time…', Manezh, Moscow (as part of the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art)
2008 — 'Bricolage', National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
2008 — 'Red. Brown. Yesterday’s Sandwich', ART4.RU Museum of Actual Art, Moscow
2006 — Bereznitsky Gallery, Berlin, Moments/Monuments
2006 — Shugoarts, Tokyo, Yesterday's Sandwich
2005 — Galerie Ilka Bree, Bordeaux, Butterbrot
2005 — Centre de la Photographie, Geneva, Look at me I look at Water
…and others.

Published books:
Brigitte Kölle (ed.): Boris Michaijlov. Stuttgart, 1995
Inka Schube (ed.): Wenn ich ein Deutscher wäre…, Dresden, 1995
Boris Michajlov: Am Boden. Die Dämmerung. (2 volumes) Cologne, 1996
Boris Mikhailov: Unvollendete Dissertation. Zurich, 1998
Boris Mikhailov: Case History. Zurich, 1999
…and many others.

Awards:
1996 Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation Award, Zurich
1997 Albert Renger-Patzsch Award
2000 Hasselblad Award, Gothenburg, Sweden
2001 Citibank Photography Prize
2001 Kraszna-Krausz Book Award, London
2003 General Satellite Corporation Art Prize
2012 Spectrum - International Prize for Photography of the Lower Saxony Foundation
2015 Goslar Kaiserring