According to modern standards of active successful growth passion for photography came to me pretty late in life. I have reached the acme (anc.-greek ακμή) age of 40, and my vision of the world has completed its formation from both, the aesthetic and visual, as well as spiritual and moral standpoints. That’s why everything that can be seen in my works is not a search of an artistic path or of a creative expression, but a pursuit to fill the frame with self-contained semantic load using visual methods available to my artistic education.
2006
Misha Maslennikov was born in 1964 in the Dobroe settlement close to Moscow. Since 2013 constantly lives in the Odessa city, Ukraine.
1981-83 — he studied at Art School #75, got the qualification of architectural designer-constructor.
2002-05 — Misha studied at theological department of Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University.
1985-92 — he worked in reproduction centre of the State Publishing House the Press (previous name Pravda) as a retoucher and an operator of electronic color splitting and color correcting machine. At the same time Misha Maslennikov got experienced in the following fields: photo reproduction, contacts, photomontage, he was busy in graphic, fonts and painting in art studious of Moscow painters Dmitry and Andrey Bisty, Vladimir Brainin.
1993-98 — he worked as an assistant of head of printing department at the design agency of the company Videoservice, became professional in control of printing process, graphic design, pre-printing photo preparation.
2001-02 — he was engaged as an art-director in the project Byzantium.ru of charity organization — The Centre of Help to Development of Orthodox art Byzantine.
He began traveling in the Russian North in 2002. The main areas are single expeditions to the places difficult of access, visiting and co-operation with cenobites of active monasteries, sketes, with keepers of ancient temples, pogosts, studying the way of life of modern hermits, anchorites, real intercourse and contacts with backwoodsmen.
Since the middle of 2005 Misha goes in for field reportage photography and begins thinking seriously about the photographic process as a way of the particular conveyance of author ideas in a missionary vein. At present Misha Maslennikov continues his work on private and public projects in documentary photography, individual and group expeditions according to a given subject, collection of materials, visual ethnography.
Photos are in museum and private collections in Russia and abroad.
2008 — he triggered the arrangement of photoclub under Feofaniya Gallery.
Since 2006 — member of the Noga Creative Union.
Since 2010 — member of the Russian Photounion.
Since 2010 — member of the Russian Geography Society.
Since 2020 — independent photographer of the Incubator Photo Gallery, Portugal.
Awards & Honors:
2022 — 3rd Prize of the BarTur Photo Award 2022, Faces of Humanity (Series) theme.
2022 — Shortlisted of the World.Report Award | Documenting Humanity 2022, Master Award category.
2021 — Honourable Mention of the 2021 ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography, Social Documentary Network/SDN.
2021 — Finalist of the LensCulture Art Photography Awards 2021.
2018 — Grand Prix of the XXIV International Photo Festival Narva Autumn 2018.
2012 — Grand Prix of the All-Russian photo contest “Living Ocean and Coastal Zone” of the Press Center of the Russian exposition at the World EXPO-2012 and Science and Life magazine.
Solo exhibitions:
2023 — The Don Steppe, The 4° edition Asincronie | Documentary Cinema and Photography Festival in Sardinia, Ateliers Piazza F.Sotgiu, Alghero, Italy.
2022 — The Don Steppe, The XIII edition of The Festival of Ethical Photography, Palazzo Modignani, Lodi, Italia.
2021 — The Don Steppe, 9. Foto Art Festival named after Andrzej Baturo, Gallery of Photography B& B, Bielsko-Biała, Poland.
2018 — Chukotka is a land of loneliness, “Ruunipizza”, Tartu, Estonia.
2018 — Chukotka is a land of loneliness, XXIV International Photo Festival Narva Autumn 2018, House of Culture Rugodiv, Narva, Estonia.
2018 — Ordinary Photos, Art Space, Vitebsk Center of the Modern Art, Vitebsk, Belarus.
2013 — Ordinary Photos, Odessa Museum Western & Eastern Art, Odessa, Ukraine.
2013 — 3 Outskirts: Karelia, Altai, Chukotka, The First Sevastopol International Photo Festival, Sevastopol, Ukraine.
2012 — 3 Outskirts: Karelia, Altai, Chukotka, Russian Museum of Photography, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
2012 — 3 Outskirts: Karelia, Altai, Chukotka, GM Photo Gallery, Yekaterinburg, Russia.
2008 — WE, Feofaniya Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
Group exhibitions:
2023 — BarTur Photo Awards 2022, f3 — freiraum für fotografie Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
2022 — PhotoTOP. Still Life 2022, Gallery of Classical Photography, Moscow, Russia.
2022 — World View: ZEKE Award Winners 2021, Bridge Gallery, Cambrige, USA.
2021 — ZEKE Award Winners 2021, Photoville anniversary festival, Brooklyn Bridge Park — Pier 3, NY, USA.
2021 — Noga 15 years old, VI International festival of photography “Fotokrok” named Sigismund Yurkovsky, Vitebsk Center of the Modern Art, Vitebsk, Belarus.
2021 — FotoTOP 2021, Gallery of Classical Photography, Moscow, Russia.
2020 — Noga Creative Union, Thin Line Photo Festival, Odessa Museum Western & Eastern Art, Odessa, Ukraine.
2016 — Life without pomp and parade, Central library M.Y. Lermontov, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2012 — Urban Environment, International Photofestival “Photo Days Ogre 2012”, Ogre Cultural Center, Museum of History and Art, Ogre, Latvia.
2012-19 — Our Stories, Series “We’ll manage anything!”, Project of the Mobile Photo Exhibition The Photographic Angle, London — Bristol — Swindon — Birmingham — Crowley — Slough — Bracknell — Chester — Leeds — Newcastle — Stockport — Croydon — Uxbridge — Milton Keynes — Peterborough — Fareham — Maidenhead — Solihull — Exeter — Manchester — Weybridge — Southend-on-Sea — Reading — Coventry — Camberley — Bracknell — Grays — Cardiff, United Kingdom.
2012-21 — 200 Faces, Project of the Mobile Photo Exhibition The Photographic Angle, London — Bristol — Swindon — Birmingham — Durham — Farnborough — Camberley — Crowley — Greenford — Uxbridge —Chester — Leeds — Manchester — Maidenhead — Southend-on-Sea — Weybridge — Peterborough — Coventry — Bracknell — Reading — Chelmsford — Maidenhead — Ascot — Feltham — Milton Keynes, United Kingdom.
2012-13 — Birthmarks on the map, Australian Photofestival Head On, gallery The Muse at the Institute of Photography TAFE NSW, Sydney, Australia;
— The Photo Industry Fair PMA, Melbourne Exhibition Center, Melbourne, Australia.
2011-14 — Invisible Country, Project Liberty.SU, White Cube Gallery, Omsk, Russia;
— Tomsk Regional Museum of Local History, Tomsk, Russia;
— Municipal Art Gallery, Kostroma, Russia;
— Polar Photo Fest, Norilsk Art Gallery, Norilsk, Russia.
2011 — We live in Russia, CDC of the South-Western Administrative District, Moscow, Russia.
2010 — No distinction, MArchI, Moscow, Russia.
2008-09 — Territory of Joy, Rumyantsev Mansion (branch of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg), St. Petersburg, Russia;
— Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists, Pskov, Russia;
— Center for Orthodox Culture, Bialystok, Poland;
— Russian House of Science and Culture, Berlin, Germany;
— Voronezh Regional Art Museum. I.N. Kramskoy, Voronezh, Russia;
— The scientific and cultural center of the museum-reserve Mikhailovskoye, Pskov region, Russia;
— The Nevskaya Curtain of the Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2009 — My Favorite Province, Center for Culture and Art “Meridian”, Moscow, Russia;
— Russian Center for Science and Culture, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
2007 — Imagine Russia, Brooklyn Coffee & Tea House Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
