Kudryavtsev works in the world of Russian glossy magazines from early 90-s. During these 25 years, he worked with almost all the magazines such as Rolling Stone, OM, Premier, GQ, L'Officiel, Elle, Vogue, Grazia, Bolshoi Gorod, Cool, Musical Life and other iconic magazines. He made a "Leningrad" cover page for the first Russian edition of Rolling Stone magazine, 24 pages in a single Russian Elle issue, more than three dozens of covers for Grazia Magazine. Vasiliy Kudryavtsev is always selective in choosing characters, and shoots only those people who are interesting in his opinion, from Minister Kasyanov for GQ magazine to Detsl, whose first album was designed by Vasiliy. "A lot of the characters are like me, sometimes friends were noticing that I made a self-portrait again". Long collaboration with Universal record company and MTV channel allowed Kudryavtsev to take canonical photographs of many Russian and foreign stars, such as the first official t.A.T.u. photo shoot, which later became world famous. At various times Vasiliy Kudryavtsev got caught in his lens Metallica, The Prodigy, Kiss, Depeche Mode, Marilyn Manson, Björk, James Cameron, Moby, David Bowie, Meryl Streep, t.A.T.u., Detsl, Vincent Cassel, Daniel Craig, Fanny Ardant, Lady Gaga, Dolphin, Denis Simachev, Tina Kandelaki, Sergey Mazaev, Alla Pugacheva and many others. Many people are familiar with Kudryavtsev's photos of 90-s from posters, magazine covers and CD's, which he designed for Zemfira, Dolphin, Detsl, Ilya Reznik, Uma2rman and for many electronic musicians.
Over the last 25 years of his professional career Vasiliy compiled an archive covering a six square meters area. Kudryavtsev prefers film to digital photography and 80% of all the images are hand printed. "Film teaches you contemplation. And selectivity".
"Vasiliy Kudryavtsev's works reflect the hectic lifestyle of a Russian man, who finds himself in the motley world of international show business. A bizarre mélange of teenage angst, soviet sculptural images and a draw towards American culture are reflected in Mr. Kudryavtsev's photography. Kudryavtsev's portfolio is a kaleidoscope of candid observations of human contradiction and modern contemporaries. Vasiliy looks for a small piece of himself in each frame and almost every one of Kudryavtsev's characters are in their own way his brothers and sisters, people from his close circle". (Alexander Kondukov, Rolling Stone Russia) "When I met Vasya Kudryavtsev in the beginning of 90-s he was one of the most dangerous people in photographic community". (Evelina Khromtchenko, TV-host) "Many times in twenty years of friendship Vasya and I had opportunities to communicate with celebrities. I took interviews. Vasya took photos. I was always amazed by his manner of "cutting all the unnecessary", with almost surgical accuracy. "Oh, let's take this one! But not that!" He has an eye for real stars. And the stars he worked with always had a feeling for a really good photographer. There is no other explanation to such a fantastic collection of incredibly natural portraits of our times". (Mikhail Kozyrev, radio producer, TV- and radio host) "Vasya made my first glossy cover portrait (OM, 1997. Got the prize for the "Best shot of the issue"). My best portrait. No one managed to beat him since then. Vasiliy is like a rock-n-roll king to me, though he isn't on stage, but off-stage he is anyway becoming a star at the moment. He is the same superstar to me as the people he is taking photos of. People of all types reveal themselves in front of his camera ready for all kinds of actions. It is a surprisingly unique quality for a photographer. Kudryavtsev is an equal participant in the circumstances where he appears while taking photos of his heroes." (Tutta Larsen, TV-host).
December 2015, RuArts Gallery of contemporary art will celebrate its 11-th anniversary. On this occasion, RuArts presents solo exhibition of famous Moscow photographer Vasiliy Kudryavtsev for the first time in 25 years of his career. The exhibition will take place at the gallery from 8 December 2015 to 31 January 2016.
Kudryavtsev works in the world of Russian glossy magazines from early 90-s. During these 25 years, he worked with almost all the magazines such as Rolling Stone, OM, Premier, GQ, L'Officiel, Elle, Vogue, Grazia, Bolshoi Gorod, Cool, Musical Life and other iconic magazines.
He made a "Leningrad" cover page for the first Russian edition of Rolling Stone magazine, 24 pages in a single Russian Elle issue, more than three dozens of covers for Grazia Magazine.
Vasiliy Kudryavtsev is always selective in choosing characters, and shoots only those people who are interesting in his opinion, from Minister Kasyanov for GQ magazine to Detsl, whose first album was designed by Vasiliy. "A lot of the characters are like me, sometimes friends were noticing that I made a self-portrait again".
Long collaboration with Universal record company and MTV channel allowed Kudryavtsev to take canonical photographs of many Russian and foreign stars, such as the first official t.A.T.u. photo shoot, which later became world famous.
At various times Vasiliy Kudryavtsev got caught in his lens Metallica, The Prodigy, Kiss, Depeche Mode, Marilyn Manson, Bj?rk, James Cameron, Moby, David Bowie, Meryl Streep, t.A.T.u., Detsl, Vincent Cassel, Daniel Craig, Fanny Ardant, Lady Gaga, Dolphin, Denis Simachev, Tina Kandelaki, Sergey Mazaev, Alla Pugacheva and many others.
Many people are familiar with Kudryavtsev's photos of 90-s from posters, magazine covers and CD's, which he designed for Zemfira, Dolphin, Detsl, Ilya Reznik, Uma2rman and for many electronic musicians.
Over the last 25 years of his professional career Vasiliy compiled an archive covering a six square meters area. Kudryavtsev prefers film to digital photography and 80% of all the images are hand printed. "Film teaches you contemplation. And selectivity".
"Vasiliy Kudryavtsev's works reflect the hectic lifestyle of a Russian man, who finds himself in the motley world of international show business. A bizarre mélange of teenage angst, soviet sculptural images and a draw towards American culture are reflected in Mr. Kudryavtsev's photography. Kudryavtsev's portfolio is a kaleidoscope of candid observations of human contradiction and modern contemporaries. Vasiliy looks for a small piece of himself in each frame and almost every one of Kudryavtsev's characters are in their own way his brothers and sisters, people from his close circle". (Alexander Kondukov, Rolling Stone Russia)
"When I met Vasya Kudryavtsev in the beginning of 90-s he was one of the most dangerous people in photographic community". (Evelina Khromtchenko, TV-host)
"Many times in twenty years of friendship Vasya and I had opportunities to communicate with celebrities. I took interviews. Vasya took photos. I was always amazed by his manner of "cutting all the unnecessary", with almost surgical accuracy. "Oh, let's take this one! But not that!" He has an eye for real stars. And the stars he worked with always had a feeling for a really good photographer. There is no other explanation to such a fantastic collection of incredibly natural portraits of our times". (Mikhail Kozyrev, radio producer, TV- and radio host)
"Vasya made my first glossy cover portrait (OM, 1997. Got the prize for the "Best shot of the issue"). My best portrait. No one managed to beat him since then. Vasiliy is like a rock-n-roll king to me, though he isn't on stage, but off-stage he is anyway becoming a star at the moment. He is the same superstar to me as the people he is taking photos of. People of all types reveal themselves in front of his camera ready for all kinds of actions. It is a surprisingly unique quality for a photographer. Kudryavtsev is an equal participant in the circumstances where he appears while taking photos of his heroes." (Tutta Larsen, TV-host)
