According to the current weather, the ruin is icy and therefore absolutely deserted: even the most passionate art lover is unlikely to be able to spend more than 10-15 minutes in it. Photos traditionally look very expressive against the background of bare brick walls, but the twilight, the current frost and desertedness give the shock republican construction sites of new hotels and sanatoriums, shops and schools, captured on them, an almost phantasmagoric shade.
The works of Mikhail Churakov are distinguished by their rigor and solidity: the photographer did not set himself the task of finding an unusual angle or photographing the building so that no one would recognize him. On the contrary, he was engaged in photographing actively building Soviet cities, filming newly erected complexes from the most anticipated and advantageous points. Churakov's collection contains many photographs of typical buildings that make up the modern architectural environment of most cities of the former Soviet Union. It is also important that the shooting of many objects was carried out in the year of the end of their construction, due to which these buildings again appear before us in their original form. Churakov actively photographed monuments of Russian and foreign architecture - for more than 20 years his photographs were published in the most famous magazines and popular science books of the publishing house "Art", "Stroyizdat", "Great Soviet Encyclopedia".
Part of the exposition is designed as a photographer's working room, where you can see Soviet and captured photographic equipment of Mikhail Churakov, his personal photographs and documents, as well as photographs reflecting the life of the Museum of Architecture of those years. The fact is that the photographer has a very long-standing relationship with the museum - back in 1950 he was instructed to organize at the museum, then located in the Donskoy Monastery, a photo laboratory in the building of the Pervushins' burial vault. And although he was never formally an employee of the museum, he witnessed all his significant events and always documented them. Now Churakov's archive is one of the largest in the photographic fund of the MUAR and is constantly used in the preparation of exhibitions dedicated to the architecture of the 1950-1970s era.
The exhibition is open until December 9, 2010.
