Georgy Keymakh
Artist Statement
I use various non-traditional photographic techniques such as large-format cameras, screenshots from webcams, captions from CCTVs, and gravestone photographs. Many of these methods refer to vernacular photography, which is considered more as a historical source, or as evidence, i.e. truth.
I explore the perception of reality — tracking a person’s gaze, focusing on those details that remain in memory as markers of a certain state. Largeness, sharpness, color, eye contact, and random details become objects of research.
My use of image acquisition methods that are uncharacteristic of traditional photography is similar to artistic documentaries, mockumentary, etc. Webcams, surveillance cameras, X-ray-like devices, non-editable analog processes — all this creates a documentary effect. The use of a special technology that combines shooting with a large-format camera and a reversible process is also designed to produce an image that is created directly, without the use of intermediate steps or post-processing.
Main topics that I work on
Death and memory. I’m interested in the idea that people perceive the inevitability of death through ritualistic rehearsals, through active preparation for death.
Physicality. In my projects, I try to consider the body in any of its aspects except as a sexual object.
Ordinariness. I pay attention and examine the most boring things that a person gets used to and perceives as an extension of themselves, spaces that a person gets used to and which may seem unpleasant and abnormal to new visitors.