Leonid Lazarev

Leonid Nikolaevich Lazarev (Russian: Леонид Николаевич Лазарев, born July 14, 1937) is a notable Russian photo artist and photojournalist.

Leonid Lazarev
Born14 July 1937
Moscow, Russia
OccupationPhoto artist, photojournalist
Website
www.photol.net.ru

Art Biography

1957 - wins the second prize of Moscow Festival of Youth and Students photo contest, decides to become a professional photographer.

1957, 1958, 1959, 1960 - Takes part in a series of photo exhibitions called "Our Youth".

1958-1963 - works as a photojournalist in a "Soviet Woman" magazine.

1960 - becomes a prize-winner of a "Soviet Woman" magazine.

1961 - becomes a prize-winner of an all-USSR photo exhibition.

1961 - becomes a prize-winner of an all-USSR photo exhibition for the 2nd time.

1962 - becomes "one of the world's best photographers" according to the opinion of foreign press - «Photography Year Book».

1964 - works as a photojournalist in a "Krugozor" magazine.

1972 – graduates in a Journalistic Mastery Institute.

1974 - becomes a prize-winner of an International contest by the "New Time" magazine.

1977 - graduates in The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, cameraman faculty.

1985 - becomes a prize-winner of an all-USSR "40 years of Great Victory" photo exhibition.

1999 - awarded with a Kodak-Master title.

2008 - personal photo exhibition in a "PhotoSouz" gallery.

2010 - personal photo exhibition in Orensanz art gallery in New York, USA.

2010 - sells some of the works to Tretyakov Gallery.

2011 - photo exhibition of Leonid Lazarev in the U.S. Congress. The opening was attended by: Dan Russell, Deputy assistant Secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, Konstantin Kosachev — Chairman, State Duma Committee on international Affairs, curator of the exhibition - Natalia Kolodzei — Director of the Kolodzei Art Foundation.

2013 — Russian Museum is exhibiting Lazarev's photographs, from 05.09.2013, No. 2459/2.

2013 — opening of "Penza arts international-2013" in The Penza Savitsky Art Gallery. Author's project "Generation".

2014 — exhibition in the style of "Visionism" at the international exhibition "Penza Art International» in The Penza Savitsky Art Gallery.

2014 — The art gallery of the University of Arizona in the United States presents 18 photographs by L. Lazarev.

2015 — The Oscar Niemeyer Museum (Brazil) presents 19 photographs by L. Lazarev.

2016 — State Central Cinema Museum (Moscow) was replenished with 5 photographs by L. Lazarev, from 12.03.2015, No. 199.

2016, 21 March — the Opening of a personal exhibition of L. N. Lazarev at Columbia University in the United States.

2016 — The Museum of Moscow has replenished with 47 photographs by L. N. Lazarev, from 18.11.2016 No. 90.

2016 — Lazarev created a bronze sculpture called "Photographer". The sculpture acquired by The State Historical and Memorial Museum-Reserve «Homeland of VI Lenin ». Act PP-30/16.

Famous people about Leonid Lazarev

Composer, People’s Artist of Russia Gennady Gladkov:

For me as a professional musician, first impression of Leonid Lazarev’s photography was similar to my impression of great musical works. In his work I’ve found analogies to the melody, harmony, rhythm, sharp dynamic contrasts and polyphony: I’ve seen a great variety of “orchestration” – ethereal, light and almost unreal at first and tight, expressly documental and piercingly domestic later. That entire gigantic amount of his works is lyrical, full of love to the people, aspiration to express their potential through their visage, love to their houses, cities, culture, art, nature and to every living thing on the Earth.

Writer, playwright and USSR State Prize awardee Alexander Gelman:

[While he was] looking at me, he was seeing not me but a future photo that he had already envisioned. He was working with me like a writer is working with words. He had relocated me a few times, in an armchair, then on a chair, closer to the window, farther from it, facing the books, facing away from them. Sometimes he turned my entire body, other time he was moving only my head. It was obvious that he was interested not in the head that was on my shoulders but the one that will appear on the photo. I was watching at his look. I’ve seen how his eyes search [for an idea], choose, find, wonder, reject, look at previous variants, decline once again, look to the earlier once more and finally reject it for good. His eyes were working constantly, purposefully. His words while he was at it were purely practical. I was feeling like a practice material, a mannequin, a prototype of a future photographical portrait [made] by a famous master. He wasn’t very satisfied with me – something wasn’t going how he wanted it to. But I could see in his eyes that he was not one of those photographers who will compromise with circumstances.

Cameraman, Lenin Prize awardee and Honored Art Worker of Russia Sergey Medynsky:

For a cold, soulless mechanism to become a true time machine, it needs to be in the hands of a man like Leonid Nikolayevich Lazarev. A camera became a part of his soul and can react to the arisen situation, estimate detail’s importance, look thoughtfully into the essence of human nature… His camera never works ‘just in case’, no really thinking about what it sees. Lazarev can press camera’s button in the exact moment when he had find a way in the essence of the object that he films. That’s exactly why he is so good at event reports, at showing of both the physical world and the state of mind of his contemporaries.

Filmmaker, journalist, President of Russia Prize awardee L. Reznikov:

Leonid Nikolayevich Lazarev’s photos, if you look at them closely, make you feel a lot of indescribable feelings. It is extremely hard to express those feelings. They are similar to the perception of the haze of semi-transparent objects, drops of dew shining in the rays of the morning sun, mirror-like surface of a lake… In other words – it is a true photographic painting, depicting sensation of the existence itself.

Writer Xenia Golubovich:

There is no doubt that in Leonid Lazarev’s hand [it] will get maximally free and strong conclusion. Photography is a part of society, of its ideologies, of its rhetorics, freedoms and restrictions, its borders and their violations, it is a part of self-representation of time, a part of our consciousness and unconsciousness; and even more, it is able to change in time and with the new rhetoric any expressive photo would not have the same meaning that it had yesterday. That’s why no matter how much a photographer is defined by his visual surroundings, the main thing still will be that honesty with which he describes the physics of his times, that sensitivity he wants to preserve in himself and that mastery level on which he is capable of working.

Photography historian Valery Blumfelde:

LEONID LAZAREV has that bright talent of a photographer-realist. Each of his photos, that he deems acceptable to show to the public, contains that special LAZAREV-esque regard to the captured moment. He without fail will add his own peculiar vision of mundane things; amazingly paint his photo with his intellect, thoughts and feelings, his temperament and character. Photographer will surely represent a part of himself in every frame. That ability is called a talent or genius, and not everyone who takes up a camera and even have some commercial success with it can call himself a photographer. But only with the transfer to the free style art talent of the photographer Leonid Lazarev truly unfolded. Now he can choose a theme for his photos himself, he creates an explication, and his talent helps him to create photographic masterpieces, like “Flying women”, “Still lifes”, “Moscow”, etc.

Photographic publications in press
  • 1958–1963 – Soviet Woman magazine – 110 published works.
  • 1962 – Photography Year Book - 1962 (edited by Nornam Hall, GB).
  • 1964–1993 – Krugozor and Kolobok magazines - 720 published works.
  • 1986 – Set of large format postcards "USSR Malyi Theater"
  • 1988 – Set of large format postcards "Moscow State Academic Children's Theater by the Name of N.I Satz"
  • 2003 – History of Russian Customs - illustrated book.
  • 2004 – Moscow in races – illustrated encyclopaedic atlas.
  • 2007 – History of Moscow in XII - XX centuries - illustrated book.
  • 2007 – "Photo 60-70" - book series "Anthology of Russian Photography of the XX century".
  • 2008 - Selected works - author's catalogue of L. N. Lazarev. Publisher: I. Gorshkov.
  • 2009 - "VSKhV-VDNKh-VVC" - jubilee illustrated edition (4 books).
  • 2009 - "Moscow - Waiting for the Future" - author's catalogue of L. N. Lazarev.
  • 2010 - "Icons 1960-1980".
  • 2013 — The seven-volume multimedia edition of Rasul Gamzatov's work, with photo illustrations by Leonid Lazarev. Publisher: The Russian Book Union.
  • 2014 г. — «I live twice» - Leonid Lazarev's book of the authorial stories. Publishing center of Ulyanovsk state University.
  • 2015 г. — A book dedicated to the 2000th anniversary of Derbent. Filming Staged by Leonid Lazarev.
  • 2015 г. — «No powder and no paint», photobook by Leonid Lazarev. "Planeta" publishing house (according to the publishing program of the Moscow Government).
  • 2017 г. — «Bullet for Takamura». Short stories by L. Lazarev. Publishing House "Alfa-Design".

Sources
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