Smelov is the late great underground Russian photographer whose focus was on the people and places of St. Petersburg, Russia. In his work, every face, every tree, every street and every building is a lively element in the existence of a great city. As a fine art photographer, his work was something of an anomaly in the USSR which only officially recognized photojournalism and amateur photography. It is hard to imagine the life of this great photographer, and how he possibly earned a living, working in an unrecognized profession. We’ve all read about artists bringing their work to gatherings of other artists for some recognition in their community. But how did they earn their livings, how did they continue in their art? Smelov obviously achieved some degree of recognition, evidenced by the Soviet government’s closing of an exhibition of Smelov... (https://secondhanging.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/boris-smelov-at-sputnik-gallery/) It is interesting to speculate how Boris Smelov might have responded to the digital revolution in photography, which had only begun to spread its all-enveloping wings in 1998, when the artist died. On the one hand, he was consistently intrigued by new developments in the medium and frequently deplored the difficulty of obtaining the latest tools and materials in the Soviet Union, where only journalistic and amateur photography were officially recognized. Nonetheless, he owned first-rate cameras and always printed on high-quality paper, and he acknowledged that technical advances naturally bring about changes in quality. When it became available, he himself made interesting experiments with infrared film. In an interview published in 1988, Smelov reflected that devices like automatic cameras and new techniques for developing and printing "have widened the cultural horizon, enriched the stock of available images and even the point of view of photographers." Yet his enthusiasm was not unqualified... (http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2011/8B56) undefined

More on Google