About the exhibition of Valery Bliznyuk. Artist Leonid Vasilievich Kozlov

In the field of photography, Tatiana Mezhelaitis is a master of many genres - nude, faishion, subject and reportage photography. But, like a true professional, she chooses her theme in art. And this, first of all, is penetration into the depths of the soul - of a model, still life, nature. The psychologism of her works is obvious. The choice of color, framing, angle - everything is aimed at making the viewer see behind the image something more than a reflection of reality. Therefore, her works at exhibitions are of interest. But there is another attractive feature of it creative works. Tatiana Mezhelaitis represents the world full of harmony and beauty, and this aesthetics unites both the staged composition she created and the surreal landscape eastern city, and a thoughtful woman looking into her lens.

Tanya Mezhelaitis, photo artist.
Member Creative Union artists of Russia. Participant of more than 30 exhibitions.
Graduated from VGIK named after S. Gerasimov
Tel. +7 916 5757 312

VALERY BLIZNYUK. Photo project “WAY OF LIFE”. SALON Central House of Artists 2015

17 Mar 2015 | From: website

Valery Bliznyuk: “It happens that people live in the same city, in the same house and in the same apartment, and everyone has their own way of life, their own world. Sometimes these worlds are completely different and even hostile. And somewhere far away, thousands of kilometers away, there lives a man with a different side and a different language, but he is like your own.”

Valery Bliznyuk was born in 1964 in Moscow. In 1990 he graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute. V.I.Surikov, easel graphics workshop. Since 1998, member of the Moscow Union of Artists, section monumental painting. Participant of many personal and group exhibitions.
He is engaged in decorating private architecture and painting temples. Participated in work on the iconostasis of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and other churches in Moscow

Exhibition by Valery Bliznyuk
"Lifestyle" project
Central House of Artists Salon 2015

At the photo exhibition
Valery Bliznyuk
Project "Lifestyle"
Central House of Artists Salon 2015

At the photo exhibition
Valery Bliznyuk
Project "Lifestyle"
Central House of Artists Salon 2015

At the photo exhibition
Valery Bliznyuk
Project "Lifestyle"
Central House of Artists Salon 2015

Valery Bliznyuk “Athos Monastery of St. Paul
Altar icon
"Nisiotissa" XIV century. Lifestyle project
Central House of Artists Salon 2015

Alexandra Zagryazhskaya. Composition APPLE SPAS

Apple is our most popular fruit. Almost every country garden has apple trees. And in villages, branches with ripe fruit sometimes climb right into the window. What a temptation! But harvest time comes only with the arrival of the holiday Apple Spas. Before this, you cannot pick and eat apples. Those who have coped with temptation receive the most delicious fruits, and Christian tradition will enjoy this joy in eternal life.

Apple Spas
photo:
Alexandra Zagryazhskaya
(Daniela Ryabicheva, Ryabichev Creative Workshop)
2006

Artist LEONID VASILIEVICH KOZLOV. The book “Russian Abroad. Great compatriots"

Contemporaries have a special feeling towards representatives of the Russian diaspora, those who are called emigrants of the “first wave”. They personified the era with the plots of their works and life stories, the pages of which are known almost better than their work itself. Even the most recognized and successful of those who were forced to leave Russia became a living illustration of nostalgia for the Motherland.
The book “Russian Abroad. Great Compatriots" - brought together outstanding names of those who amazed the world with their discoveries and talents. Ivan Bunin, Pyotr Wrangel, Georgy Gazdanov, Zinaida Gippius, Mikhail Chekhov, Marc Chagall - in total, the literary and artistic project will unite one hundred names. The presentation of the first book took place. The author of the idea, artist and compiler, Leonid Kozlov, worked for three years to create illustrations. One of the essays was written by him - “The artist Leonid Kozlov about the artist Marc Chagall.”

Artist
Leonid Vasilievich Kozlov,
2010

Leonid Kozlov: “The key work of this exhibition and my book is Marc Chagall. This is an unusually complex, contradictory, rich figure. Of course, I would like to meet some of them. I was lucky for my daughter, who had just met the son of Marc Chagall in Paris and she gave him a small copy of my work, he really liked it, he said that he imagined dad like that, flying over the world, and gave me a reproduction of the painting “Chagall with cats” " I received it the other day, and it’s very touching to receive such a gift from the son of Marc Chagall.”

The presentation of the book-album took place at the House of Russian Abroad, where an exhibition of drawings by Leonid Kozlov was located. Each illustration could be called a key work in this exhibition. The portrait of Sergei Rachmaninoff, a gift from Leonid to the House of Russian Abroad, could even become a symbol of Russian emigration. Behind the musician is a Chicago skyscraper, and Russian birch trees are reflected in the open wing of the piano. Treating each of the characters with special reverence, in love with their works, in his drawings Leonid Vasilyevich brought their images extremely close to the viewer, trying to make obvious not only the greatness of their talents. He got to know them better, having read everything that could be found about them, and they appeared in his works as close friends to us, who did not hide their experiences and dreams.

Leonid Kozlov: “Wonderful writer Georgy Gazdanov. One of his moments abroad coincided with World War II. When the fascists captured Paris almost without a fight, he participated in the famous Parisian resistance, put up posters with slogans against fascism, and of course was exposed to danger, like any member of the resistance. You see, he's a writer, but he doesn't sit behind a desk. I wanted to find a dramatic image, climax in his life. Wrangel is depicted at the most dramatic moment when he leaves his homeland. It is compositionally built in the center of the picture, against the background of the ship, and these lines of the mast, the ship and the figure give us the opportunity to read the cross. The cross that he carried all his life, the longing for his homeland, the dream of returning.”

Recorded by Alexandra Zagryazhskaya

Artist
Leonid Vasilievich Kozlov,
Russian Abroad Library
photo 2010

Artist
Leonid Vasilievich Kozlov
during the filming of the program
"Art Salon"
Alexandra Zagryazhskaya

Artist
Leonid Vasilievich Kozlov
photo: Alexandra Zagryazhskaya,
2010

Workshop of the sculptor ALEXANDER RYABICHEV. Exhibition by LYUDMILA KUZNETSOVA.

We will post a report from the exhibition later

Poster
performance
Lyudmila Kuznetsova
in the sculptor's workshop
Alexandra Ryabicheva

Alexandra Zagryazhskaya. "SAKURA". With gratitude, REIKO and YOSHIHIRO.

15 Mar 2013 | From: website

With gratitude, REIKO AND YOSHIHIRO

25 Feb 2013 | From: website

International Center of Photography
International Center of Photography (ICPHOTO)

supported by:
Russian Academy of Arts
Moscow Museum of Modern Art

presents the International Photo Exhibition “What are you doing, Winter?”

Dates: March 1 – April 1, 2013
Address: Moscow, Bryansky lane, 2.
Exhibition hall of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art

“What are you doing, Winter?” - an exhibition project that continues the activities of the International Center of Photography - a new community of photography masters that unites photo artists different countries peace.
“On the World Wide Web, photography today resembles a bright and cheerful circus clownery. One of his contemporaries noted that clowns are angels in disguise. Chaplin, Engibarov, Karandash, Nikulin... They soar above eternal earthly problems without anger or partiality. They are angels! But there are fewer angels in heaven than photographers. The web lures us into its networks, forces us to unite, introduces us, invites us to its clubs of interests, and holds regular photo exhibitions and competitions.” Viktor Akhlomov (written specifically for the ICF)

“What are you doing, Winter?” is an exhibition of works of photographic art, different masters from Russia and foreign countries, who through their works tried to convey the beautiful and bewitching time of year, when everything around is covered with sparkling snow, and a person begins to notice the slightest gradations of shades of white, gray or a contrasting combination of objects, both dark tree trunks and the ground covered with snowflakes. You will see a portrait, landscape, genre sketches, everything that conveys the mood of the authors who are passionate about the process of transforming nature and emotional state person. On display, along with famous masters, young authors who are just beginning their career in creativity are also presented.

“What are you doing, Winter?” - another project organized International Center Photos, which plans to organize and hold in the coming years exhibition projects, round tables and seminars on the art of photography, as well as master classes and creative meetings with the most interesting and outstanding masters modern photography.

I Moscow International Exhibition of Artistic Enamel in the White Hall Geological Museum them. Vernadsky (Moscow, Mokhovaya, 11) February, 2013

Confessor of the portal “Orthodoxy and Peace”, rector of the Church of the All-Merciful Savior, Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko:

Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko

I would like to note an important circumstance: on August 29, the Church celebrates the memory of the miraculous image of Christ the Savior. It is no coincidence that Alexander’s father’s birthday falls on this day church calendar. The Faculty of Church Arts he created has a beneficial effect on the revival of the traditions of Russian icon painting. An icon is theology in color. To create and head such a department, you need to have deep theological knowledge, and Father Alexander fully possesses it.

Father Alexander combines nobility and high culture XIX century, steadfastness in faith and readiness to selflessly defend high ideals and principles, becoming like those who, sometimes at the cost of their freedom and life, preserved Orthodoxy in our country during the era of persecution of faith in the twentieth century.

Father Alexander man tall, and we can rightfully say about it that it is “ big man" and "great man", because he did a lot for the Russian Orthodox Church.

Although Father Alexander is celebrating his 75th birthday, one cannot say that he is an old man, because he has a young soul that retains extraordinary youthful enthusiasm and energy. And Father Alexander has a truly fighting character.

I would like to wish that all the extensive undertakings of Father Alexander bear good fruit throughout the many, many joyful years of his life!

Head of the Department of History of the Russian Orthodox Church, BF PSTGU

Archpriest Alexander Shchelkachev

Archpriest Alexander Shchelkachev:

I wholeheartedly congratulate Father Alexander on his anniversary and wish that his work for the benefit of the Church will continue for many, many more years without any obstacles or restrictions.

I also wish that our friendship with him continues, which is one of the most precious treasures in my life.

Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov:

Dear Father Alexander, we congratulate you on your 75th birthday!

All your friends want to be with you on this day: to serve the Liturgy together, to receive communion together, to express their love to you.

Archpriests Vladimir Vorobyov, Alexander Saltykov, Alexander Shchelkachev

The Lord has vouchsafed you to live a long and good life. Since childhood, you grew up and lived in a church family, in the Church, and have been serving God in the priesthood for many years.

Looking back, we usually remember with pain our sins, for which we want to ask for forgiveness. But sometimes the Lord also gives us consolation: to see the fruits of our many years of effort. Priestly ministry is difficult because only the Lord can make people better. The priest, figuratively speaking, is only a water tap through which blessed water can flow, or this tap can break and then only a small trickle or nothing at all will flow through it.

Your anniversary testifies to the fact that your pastoral ministry imparts an abundant flow of grace to people. Your spiritual children, workers, staff at St. Tikhon’s University, and members of the brotherhood in the name of the All-Merciful Savior have gathered here, and we see a lot of love, a lot of joy in Kadashi today.

When you came to this temple, it was obvious from the very beginning that it would be difficult to raise it, having so many problems and ill-wishers and so few professional helpers and material resources. But years pass, and the temple is restored no matter what, and the parish community lives an active and full church life. The Faculty of Church Arts, which you have been continuously heading for almost 25 years, is also developing successfully. All this is done by God’s miracle and the feat of your love.

Please accept our best possible congratulations and sympathy from the bottom of my heart, both in sorrows and in joys! Accept our love and wishes for you to work for the glory of God in good health, peace and prosperity for many more years to come!

Teacher of PSTGU, deputy director for educational work of the Orthodox St. Peter's School, cleric of the St. Nicholas Church, priest Ivan Vorobyov:

I would like to cordially congratulate my dear father Alexander Saltykov on his 75th birthday!

It seems to me that for spiritual father 75 years is not the time when one should retire, but the time when a priest reaches wisdom and spiritual experience when he really should and can share this experience with people. Father Alexander became for many people not only a confessor, but a leader in spiritual life. I wish him that he will spiritually lead the flock that has formed in the Church of the Resurrection in Kadashi for many more years.

Father Alexander has amazing taste and a sense of beauty, so it is providential that he is at the origins of the icon painting department. The Faculty of Church Arts under the leadership of Father Alexander has become one of the most popular and in demand at our university. And in general, there are probably few in the Russian Church where they teach how to paint icons this way. Obviously, this is the undoubted merit of Father Alexander.

Father Alexander is straight and hard, like granite. It is precisely such shepherds who are the foundation of the Russian Church and the Church in general. We all need to learn this firmness and uncompromisingness from him. May God give him strength in his difficult struggle for the fate of Kadashi!

Dean of the Faculty of Church Singing at PSTGU, cleric of the Nikolo-Kuznetsk Church, Archpriest Alexey Emelyanov:

Archpriest Alexey Emelyanov

With all my heart and soul I congratulate dear father Alexander on his 75th birthday!

Father Alexander had the privilege of serving in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi in our native Zamoskvorechye, in the place where the destinies of the capital city of Moscow are united.

It so happened that before my eyes, Father Alexander blossomed in the priesthood, like a Krin village, or rather, not a village at all, it would be better to say like a Krin Grad. This is confirmed by the history of the Kadashevsky temple.

Father Alexander for me is the keeper of the invisible tuning fork of taste and sense of beauty in our surrounding world, now completely broken, distorted, distorted. Father Alexander is the keeper of the amazing pearl of Zamoskvorechye. Such a union, such harmony - a wonderful church and its now living abbot. It's amazingly organic! For me and many other people, this fact is a definite guarantee that the history of modern churchliness is guided by the inscrutable judgments of God, that God’s truth cannot be trampled underfoot on our sinful earth.

I say this, remembering the ongoing epic associated with the Kadashevsky Temple. The fact that this situation has not been resolved is a guarantee that the rector of Kadashi, now the celebrant of the day, is still very, very needed by the Moscow church, simply necessary and irreplaceable. In this regard, I would like to wish Father Alexander many blessed years of health, service and all kinds of creativity!

Deputy Dean of the Missionary Faculty of PSTGU, Professor Andrey Borisovich Efimov:

Andrey Borisovich Efimov

A very long time ago, the then young Alexander Alexandrovich Saltykov, who had just started working at the Andrei Rublev Museum, started talking to me about why the icon of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Mother of God is depicted as small as a baby, and why is she not in the center of the icon, although this is Her holiday, because they celebrate Her Nativity. The second question he then asked: was there suffering and death in Paradise? From the reflections expressed in these questions, some directions of successful and fruitful scientific activity Alexander's father.

I would like us to finally be able to see the completed work of Father Alexander on Shestodnev, which over all these decades continues to gradually crystallize.

I would like to congratulate Father Alexander on his anniversary and wish him the publication of works summarizing his many years of work in the most interesting and deep research in the field of icon painting and the theology of icon painting, in the field of patristic theology, in particular, the study of Shestodnev.

Headman of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi Vladimir Nikolaevich Savochkin:

Father Alexander is one of the few people from whom you need to follow an example. I have been working with him since 1999. Two events are significant for me. The first - when in 2004 we freed the temple from the workshops named after. Grabar. This is a wonderful victory. But from the very beginning this victory was not visible. I saw how courageously and honorably he behaved during this struggle, how from the very beginning he firmly stood in the position that the temple should be given to the Russian Orthodox Church. He behaved according to the words of the prophet David: “Zeal for Your house consumes me.” Zeal for the house of God in Kadashi consumed him. He saw how the employees of Grabar’s workshop drank beer in the church walkway, threw cigarette butts down, everything was terrible. All the priests, lawyers and social activists dissuaded him from fighting, but he knew that it was his duty to defend the temple. When everyone turned against him, he did not waver at all and walked the right path to victory.

The second event was the fight against illegal developers of the Five Capitals complex in 2010. He was again dissuaded from fighting great amount very good, wise and competent people. But he did not hesitate again, because he understood: the “Five Capitals” would surround the temple on all sides with a stone bag, this is a huge moral and physical threat to the temple and historical heritage Russia. Then Patriarch Kirill supported his position when he came to Kadashi in 2011.

He firmly went into this fight. Both in 2004 and in 2010, he did everything with prayer. He constantly called everyone to prayer, prayer services were constantly served in the temple, and we saw how God helped us. Many people were amazed at his toughness. We were told that it was impossible to defeat the oligarchs. But they were defeated, and Kadashi even played a role in the removal of Luzhkov from the post of mayor of Moscow.

Although he is a tough and uncompromising person in church matters, in parish situations he is an incredibly gentle and merciful person who shows mercy to people.

I heartily congratulate my dear father Alexander Saltykov on his 75th birthday! I want to wish him good health. I saw for myself how these events affected his health. We all know how much he suffered, he even had heart surgery.

I would also like to wish him God’s help for his further work for the benefit of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi and PSTGU.

Valery Bliznyuk, icon painter, artist, photographer:

In the early 1980s of the last century, a group of students interested in Byzantine art went to a lecture on the subject. In my opinion, it took place in the premises of VOOPIK (Society for the Protection of Monuments). The lecture was given by a lecturer unknown to us - Alexander Alexandrovich Saltykov. His words, explanations, figures of speech, his image from the century before last, even now, his knowledge and love for the art of the Church changed us then. We left this lecture different people! In my destiny, this was the beginning of the study of church art. He gave us a powerful message of love for Christian culture, which was the rarest jewel in Soviet time.

Father Alexander was the first person in my life who radically influenced the choice of my profession, so many years after this lecture I became an icon painter. I remember the way a person talks about what he knows and loves left an indelible impression on me. I remember this lecture, which took place more than 30 years ago, like it was yesterday. It still affects me to this day.

I cordially congratulate dear Father Alexander Saltykov on his 75th birthday and wish him that the number of his students increases every year, and thus his influence on church art and church life, on those people who are involved in church art, increases.

Photo: Alexander Filippov, Valery Bliznyuk

Archpriest Alexander Saltykov

Interview with Valery Bliznyuk in the magazine "Foma".

Lifestyle of Valery Bliznyuk.

It happens that people live in the same city, in the same house and in the same apartment, and everyone has their own way of life, their own world. Sometimes these worlds are completely different, even hostile. And somewhere far away, thousands of kilometers away, a person lives - and the side is different, and the language is different, but it’s like your own.

From March 6 to 15, the Central House of Artists, in pavilions 14 and 15, is already taking place XVIII International art salon, which includes an exhibition of an artist and photographer Valery Bliznyuk. Valery was born in Moscow in 1964, graduated from the Moscow Art School and the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov, member of the Moscow Union of Artists since 1998, since 1987 he has been engaged in photography, and since 1992 - icon painting.
The exhibition presents works made over several years of travel to Orthodox shrines: Mount Athos, Serbia, the Russian North... For more than a thousand years, monks have lived in solitude in these places. For example, on Mount Athos, a small peninsula of the Aegean Sea, there are twenty Orthodox monasteries, twelve monasteries and monastic settlements. There are monasteries and monasteries of Greek, Georgian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Russian, Romanian, and each preserves its ancient traditions, great relics and shrines.

The exhibition is quiet, it seems that there are not very many visitors, but they walk in an endless line, carefully peering at the images. The author himself happily welcomes everyone, they ask him questions, and do not skimp on grateful reviews. Behind every photo - amazing story. Images and people come to life, you become immersed in their lives, their experiences, as if you find yourself inside time stopped by the photographer:

- Your exhibition is called “Way of Life”. What kind of image did you want to convey, what kind of life is this?

- What do these pictures have in common?

The main thing is internal kinship, and anything can be filmed - Holy Mount Athos, the Arkhangelsk region, people and temples, the Moscow temple where I go, the cheerful Zaitsev family. Here are people sitting by the window, curtained with gauze, but behind this image is my acquaintance with the Arkhangelsk region, with the many people living there. This photograph concentrates my attitude and my love for these people.
Here is a photo of St. Paul's Monastery (one of the Athos monasteries. - Ed.). These monks from different countries (there are brothers from Great Britain, from Italy, from Russia, from Romania...) live alone happy family. Both the Zaitsev family and the family of Athonite monks - they are united in this exhibition. They have the same way of life.

-What is this lifestyle, why is it so important and valuable to you? What is the same?

Apparently, because I live in a metropolis like Moscow, huge and a little crazy, I look closely at the life of a person outside this metropolis, I miss him and feel sad. Living in big city, we spend an enormous amount of time on completely unimportant things. And outside the metropolis, life becomes more integral, you build it yourself, you set its rhythm. Often visiting places such as the Arkhangelsk region, the White Sea islands, the monastery on Mount Athos, I am always glad that I can immerse myself in the rhythm of life that is close to me in spirit, as a person who is involved in it. I always strive to go there, but I have to return. Every time I work with these photographs, exhibit them or even briefly look at them, they serve as a tuning fork for me, it makes my life easier.

- They come to the exhibition different people, not necessarily Orthodox, what would you like to convey to them?

Through this series of photographs, I want to introduce viewers to a different way of life, so that they can feel that it is akin to them or, on the contrary, alien.
When I was studying at the Art School, in the seventh grade we had an internship in Karelia, on the Onega Bay. There is a stunning village preserved there - from past life, life of the empire. I lived in the Soviet Union, was a pioneer, a Komsomol member... And suddenly I find myself in another world. In this world, houses that are 100, 200 years old have windows with bolts on them, and on the bolt, as I remember now, it says “Batashev Factory” and a two-headed eagle made of brass. I walk past a garbage dump, and there are discarded samovars, a whole mountain, with double-headed eagles on the stamps, with the profile of Emperor Nicholas on the medallion! When I left there, I sewed bags from burlap, carried a sketchbook, a folder and four samovars, two on each side, they banged against each other - so I returned to Moscow. And then I realized that we had been deceived, that people lived completely differently from what we had been told.
When I got to Kizhi, there was an exhibit with a sign “Poor Man's House” - 250 square meters. And the art historian told how these people lived, how they prayed in the temple, how they made a living. “Poor Man's House” - I have never seen a more anti-Soviet inscription in my life.
We live almost in the center of the city, we have a garbage disposal, an elevator... life is incredible. And I’m much closer to the way they live there, in the Russian North, although, for a number of reasons, I can’t live like that. But people there still live like this. And I wouldn’t say that they survive, they live completely normally. Yes, they do not have enough shops, roads, hospitals. But I still saw a lot of happy people.
And I want to preserve this life at least in images. I used to draw, then I started taking photographs. Photography is true, it is not an interpretation of the artist, not variations on the theme of what he saw.
Here are Solovki - the state is now investing a lot of money there, reconstruction and restoration are planned, i.e. the current image will change, just as it changed on Valaam, in Diveevo. It is very good that after many years of neglect, churches are being restored, but something is lost in the process. And I’m trying to catch it, capture it.

You said that, using paints and pencils, an artist to a greater extent brings his “I” into the reality that he would like to preserve. But this is also true for a photographer, you must agree.

You are absolutely right. The authorship of a photographer can be determined in the same way as the authorship of a painter or graphic artist. The evaluation criteria are very close. There is a composition, an idea, for the sake of which all the work was done, color and tone. The author's intention is clearly visible in the composition or perspective, in tonality or color scheme. A photograph is either a work of art, or simply a recording of an object that you see in front of you.

Then why did you choose photography, what photographic means? artistic language, better convey your desire to preserve a moment, an image?

It is these artistic criteria that I spoke about that can help show what really happened, and not what I could imagine. As, for example, I do in painting or graphics.

But, for example, there is the artist Vereshchagin, his paintings, but in fact they are practically photographs, documentaries.

I can’t agree, because he still constructed the image, using a realistic image to prove that this is what we see in front of us.

- Yes, he has a lot of sketches...
- But the same thing can be done in photography. I can use programs to create the illusion of reality, to make one from different photographs. What I mean is that both the painter and the photographer have the right to influence reality. But for me, the value of photography lies precisely in the fact that on that day I saw this person or a specific object, I somehow experienced this meeting, and I can put this experience into form. IN in this case, into photography.

- So if you drew it, it wouldn’t be true?

It would be less valuable to me. Because with the help of drawing or painting I can change something... And I will need to prove: and I am Vereshchagin, I actually saw it.

- Why are you removing the color?

I once had an exhibition of black and white photography, an uncle came up to me and said: “Why don’t you like it so much? God's peace“You’re Orthodox.” I say: “Why don’t I love?” - “He has blue sky, green grass, and you see everything in black and white...” I answer. There are different genres in art and different fine arts. `Including there is such a genre in fine arts- black and white photograph, it is already 200 years old. So it's not that I don't like color. I have color photographs, and I show them here too. But in this case, I want the series to be connected with photographs of the past, I want to show continuity, which is already more than 100 years old. Those. The people who are represented here are timeless, and black and white can express this best.
I think that a black and white image is more complex than a color one; there are fewer criteria for “like” or “dislike.” The color seems to be missing, although I believe that this is also a color. Here is a series of photographs "Athos". Blue sky, bright green grass - all this immediately takes the thought to warm countries, to resort places. And black and white photographs correlate with photographs late XIX century, when the great princes traveled to Athos and photographed it. I have the same means, the same opportunities, it’s as if I’m establishing a connection with them, continuing the work they started. I'm interested. For example, the schema of the Athonite monks is black and red, it is very interesting and beautiful, a combination of only two colors. But... Black and white photography, it emphasizes this transtemporality. Shows that it could have been 50,000 years ago, or maybe 50 years from now.
I came to photography from graphics, I studied etching at the institute, lithography, and this language of photography is close to me, like a certain technique - printing, circulation of graphic sheets.

- What would you like to see as the main result of your exhibition, what would you like people to get from you?

- You mentioned the Orthodox lifestyle. Why did you choose Orthodoxy?

Apparently, here we can remember the saying that the soul of every person is Christian by nature, he may not even know it himself.

Valery Vladimirovich Bliznyuk- famous Russian Orthodox icon painter and photographer.

It so happened that at the beginning of 1964, twins were born to a couple of serviceman Vladimir Bliznyuk. Moscow, like the whole world, was engulfed in the space boom. And the father pinned hopes on his twin sons Andryusha and Valera that if they didn’t become cosmonauts, they would definitely follow in his army footsteps. However, the guys, in the most protest and unexpected way for Soviet atheistic times, went into the service of God. Although Andrei at first tried to obey his father - he graduated from the Lvov Military-Political School. But Valery, who was educated at the Moscow art school at Moscow State Art Institute named after. V.I. Surikov and the easel graphics workshop of the same institute, I didn’t even try. His great love was for painting and photography, which he also attracted his brother to. Once in an interview, Archpriest Andrei Bliznyuk said: “From the very beginning, we decided for ourselves that photography should not be a simple recording of reality - photography should be art.” The guys filmed the streets of Moscow with the Soviet Krasnogorsk Zenit and developed the footage in their home bathroom. This global hobby unquestioningly captured the minds of both. Suddenly, in the late 80s, they abandoned the noisy metropolis and rushed off not to the BAM, where Soviet enthusiasts and romantics went, but to the Solovetsky Islands. “Living in a big city, we spend an enormous amount of time on completely unimportant things. And outside the metropolis, life becomes more integral, you build it yourself, you set its rhythm,” explained Valery Bliznyuk. But on the eve of his 30th birthday, the twins returned, and Andrei entered the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute.

Andrey and Valery Bliznyuk. Photo by Mikhail Rogozin

Valery also came to faith in those years. This is how he recalls one of his speeches about Byzantine art: “The lecture was given by a lecturer unknown to us - Alexander Alexandrovich Saltykov. His words, explanations, figures of speech, his image from the century before last, even now, his knowledge and love for the art of the Church changed us then. We left this lecture different people! In my destiny, this was the beginning of the study of church art. He gave us a powerful message of love for Christian culture, which was a rare treasure in Soviet times.” From the moment he met priest Alexander Saltykov, Valery Bliznyuk firmly decided to take up icon painting. Naturally, brother Andrei supported him, and together they often made and continue to make pilgrimage trips to holy places to pray, conduct missionary sermons and capture rare footage. They often risk their lives, going to the Far North, almost into the clutches of polar bears, or going down to miners in a dangerous dungeon, or seeking permission to enter military Kosovo and Mitohija...

To date, Valery Bliznyuk has hosted more than 10 personal exhibitions photographs, and exhibitions of national teams, where he was one of the participants, are simply countless. In 1998, Valery Vladimirovich joined the Moscow Union of Artists. And three years later, his fans were able to visit the photographer’s first exhibition, “Memories of Summer,” in Central House artist.

Photo by Valery Bliznyuk from the “Holy Mountain” series

In the last few years, publishing houses have become interested in his work. Thus, from 2013 to 2016, Bliznyuk’s photographs were published in four author’s albums. Those who have had the chance to hold them in their hands note the amazing energy of goodness, where every page is a discovery, every landscape is light, every portrait is a deep thought.

Valery considers the trust of the Orthodox clergy in him as an artist a great honor for himself: he was involved in painting the iconostasis of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This is not his only work in the capital’s churches, but it is the most significant.

In general, speaking about one talented twin brother, it is difficult not to talk about another equally gifted one - the lives of Valery and Andrey Bliznyukov are so closely intertwined with each other in almost everything. Having once united their aspirations and efforts, they followed the path of Christianity, love of neighbor and art. And so it is until now... Shoulder to shoulder, with a camera in hand, with a look to God...

Moscow

Time spending: 25.08.2016 - 17.09.2016

This series of photographs was taken in 2012-2016. The author presents a collection of black and white photographs of 78 works. Beauty majestic landscape, ancient temples, portraits of Athonite monks are examined with deep attention by the artist. Valery Bliznyuk loves Athos very much and conveys this feeling to the viewer through his photographs.

Monks have lived on Holy Mount Athos for more than a thousand years. Twenty glorious monasteries, twelve monasteries and many different monastic settlements on this small peninsula of the Aegean Sea. Greek, Georgian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Russian, Romanian monasteries and monasteries live and pray on the same sacred land. And each monastery preserves ancient traditions, relics and shrines. Holy Mountain - a living monument to the great Byzantine culture, her miraculously preserved pearl of great price. Athos in all centuries has been a reliable stronghold of faith for all generations of Orthodox Christians. The Holy Mountain is the eastern promontory of the Chalkidiki peninsula in northeastern Greece. In the southeastern part of the peninsula, Mount Athos rises 2033 meters above sea level. Now two and a half thousand monks live on the peninsula. Athos has sovereignty and independence, it is an autonomous monastic state.

The exhibition will run from August 25 to September 17, 2016.
Official opening - September 6 at 18:00.

Bliznyuk Valery Vladimirovich was born in 1964 in Moscow. Studied at the Moscow Secondary Art School at the Moscow State Art Institute. IN AND. Surikov. In 1990 he graduated from the easel graphics workshop of the Moscow State Academic Institute. IN AND. Surikov. Since 1988, he has participated in exhibitions of the Moscow Union of Artists. Since 1998, member of the section of monumental and decorative art of the Moscow Union of Artists.

Valery Bliznyuk has been engaged in photography since 1987. Held ten personal exhibitions. The main series of photographs: “Pilgrim’s Album”, “Solovetsky Islands”, “Mezen River”, “Holy Mount Athos”, “Balkans”, “Sardinia”, “City of Moscow”. He released four author's photo albums in 2013 - 2016. In 2016, the author’s works from the “Holy Mountain” series were presented at international exhibitions in Thessaloniki (Greece), Istanbul (Turkey) and in the city of New Jerusalem, Moscow region.

Valery Bliznyuk. Photo exhibition "Holy Mountain"

Photos