Alexey Titarenko was born on Vassilievsky Island in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1962. He began taking pictures in 1971, at the age of nine, and graduated from the Leningrad Public University of Society-related Professions in 1978 with a degree in Photojournalism. That same year, Titarenko became a member of the independent photo club “Zerkalo” (The Mirror) and held his first solo exhibition.

In 1983, Titarenko received a Master’s degree in Cinematic and Photographic Arts from the Leningrad Institute of Culture. Two years later, he was dismissed from obligatory military service after having served eighteen months in the Soviet Army as an infantry soldier. He began work on the series of collages and photomontages Nomenklatura of Signs, a commentary on the Communist regime. During and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991–1992, he produced several series of photographs about the human condition of ordinary people living on its territory and the suffering they endured then and throughout the twentieth century. To illustrate links between the present and the past, he created metaphors by introducing long exposure and intentional camera movement into street photography.

https://www.alexeytitarenko.com/

Work: Alexey Titarenko
Portrait: David Kregenow

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