SERGEI RIABOFF

BY ANISSASTAMBOULI

Art for the sake o fArt Pure aesthetics in portraiture The photography of Russian artist Sergei Riaboff carries the intensity and gravitas of a Renaissance painting. Developing an aesthetic in his photography that is nostalgic for the traditional painted portrait, Riaboff creates images that are honest, mournful and strikingly beautiful.

Hailing from St. Petersburg, Riaboff came to photography by chance when he received his first camera as a gift from his parents. Gradually and with great dedication, Riaboff grew into his style as he transitioned from shooting flowers, architecture and scenery, to capturing the compelling human element. “Once I understood that a picture is empty without life, I started shooting people.”

Riaboff gives face to the familiar Russian theme of melancholy, personifying it through the bodies and personalities of his models. In the positioning of his models and use of radiant lighting techniques, Riaboff conjures a complimentary luminescence for each image, displaying a unique ability to merge elements from painted portraiture with the silky texture of a photograph. “At first, I started to shoot with hard light in the studio, but I became drawn to work with softer shades,” he told INSPADES. “This greatly helped to understand how light works, which allows me to experiment.”

Softened light imparts an ethereal effect, giving Riaboff’s portraiture a sense of timelessness, but the ingenuity of Riaboff’s memorable and stirring portraiture can be found in his subject’s posture. Riaboff’s direction of each subject’s placement, with their deeply penetrative gazes, conveys a sober regality, while their natural colour palettes recall the modest beauties of Renaissance portraitures.

Captured keenly throughout the series is the beauty of sorrow, and Riaboff’s sharp eye for subjects with unique yet natural characteristics give the viewers a sense of human vulnerability and resilience, simultaneously.

The subjectivity of art is also central to Riaboff’s work. “I am not trying to convey to my viewers a secret meaning,” he said, “The girl in my picture is just a girl.” Riaboff’s portraiture pursues aesthetics, divorced from any meaning or message imposed upon the viewer by the artist. While Riaboff weaves no intention through his photography, there remains the transfer of something intangible; what we derive from it becomes our own unique experience.

When we are presented with one of Riaboff’s work, there is a small urge to seek meaning behind the image. Curious viewers must impart their own interpretation onto the image, thereby interacting with the work on a personal level.

As a photographer, Sergei Riaboff’s strength lies in blurring the line of his photographic style with the painting aesthetic of Renaissance masters, opening our minds to the enduring and reflective quality of portraiture. The viewer’s pleasure in deconstructing his portraiture offers a level of complexity, which titillates the imagination and prompts exploration of the image and its relation to the viewer’s self.

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