Borisov is one of the most famous and honored Russian photographers. Project Studio 50A gathers photographs that show the unique place of Sergei Borisov on the Russian art scene. The exhibition includes both classic and new works.
In 1979 Sergei Borisov settled at Znamenka, since 1983 known as Studio 50A. There he worked on an illustration assignment for "Le Monde" article on Soviet rock music that recently became a subject in the West. As the piece's central figure Borisov suggested 'the tsar of Russian rock' Boris Grebenshchikov and his band Aquarium with their brand new album "Radio Africa". That's how the journey to the world of Leningrad underground music started. As new music and art forms gained momentum, Studio 50 A quickly became a communication centre for artists between Moscow and Leningrad, as well as a stepping stone for modern culture and art movement.
Borisov showed another side of Soviet life with his photo stories starring underground artists. The first Soviet rock diva Zhanna Aguzarova, World Champions art group, Roman Viktyuk, Viktor Tsoi, Vladislav Monroe, Georgy Guryanov and Timur Novikov - all were natural and spontaneous during photoshoots and performance shows, climbing city monuments and undressing in the studio as well as on the street. Another photographer would unlikely portray Soviet Bohemians the way Sergei Borisov did, with the same level of mutual trust and approach to modern life - valuable things for the underground at the time, of which Studio 50A was a significant part.
Sergei Borisov, who worked with such celebrities as Sofia Rotaru, Andrei Voznesensky, Yuri Antonov, Vladimir Vysotsky, Edita Piekha and Mikhail Boyarsky, said that a single picture of Alla Pugacheva on the street could make you a famous photographer. Borisov himself designed two Pugacheva's album covers.
In due course Sergei Borisov's photographs were printed in well-established magazines such as "Face", "Tempo", "Actuel", "Interview", and "Photo". It was long before the new movement with Sergey Kuryokhin's Pop-Mekhanika in the lead was spotted on movie and TV screens, leaving behind a dozen of films including iconic "Assa". It happened in 1988 just before the first Sotheby's auction in the Soviet Union took place in Moscow. By that time it was clear that the underground of the 80s, being emotionally detached from Soviet reality and once intimidating for middlebrows and those in power, finally transformed into mass-scale modern art movement and became one of the landmarks of perestroika. The time has come to finish that chapter.
Mikhail Buster