The photo exhibition “There Are a Lot of Different Professions” from the series “Satka: City Code” has opened on March 27 in the Magnezit Cultural Center. It is the project's first exhibition set up inside the palace rather than outdoors.

The author of the idea designed to remind how versatile professional life can be and tell a story about people creating the modern world is Diana Gurova, the supervisor of the project Satka: City Code.

“Last year, I was introduced to Oleg Panov and Vera Panova, who were recommended to me as talented photographers. When I saw the work they produced for a whole range of projects and I thought that we had to do a project together. I wanted to do something special to show how subtle Vera and Oleg are in their perception of things they take photos of. That made me think of an exhibition that would portray professions that have been “forgotten” or lost their popularity, while in fact we can't exist without them,” Diana said. The result has exceeded all expectations. There is lightness, spontaneity and humor about these photographs, but they also show the focus on work. It’s just not possible to say which photos are the best. And the project will continue, quite soon. But we’ll talk about that later.

The exhibition has turned out to be really interesting. The photos show a street cleaner, a janitor, a cloakroom attendant, a cook, doctors as well as nurses and their patients (just like in the last of our selected photos), people that work in education, culture, sports… There is a photo of a blacksmith creating genuine works of art out of forge iron. Another one shows an artist, who draws posters by hand in our age of computers and professional printing houses. There is a separate series of photos dedicated to women working for a “mechanical repair company” as an electrician repairing coils and insulation of electrical equipment, a lab assistant in an electromechnical testing and measurements laboratory, an insulation worker, a turner, and a crane operator. 

The visitors have pointed out that the only thing missing at the exhibition is photos of the photographers at work.

“This is our first joint project with Vera. We accepted the proposal to take part in the project with enthusiasm. We took about a hundred photos overall. Fifty were selected for the exhibition. Admittedly, it was a very hard to do. By the way, there a QR code in the description of the exhibition, which can be used to see the photos that were not selected,” Oleg Panov says.

“We’ve gained interesting experience in this project. It’s not every day that you get the chance to visit Mangezit divisions and observe the atmosphere at the production facility. We were trying not to disrupt the work process. Nothing you can see on the photos was staged. These people were doing their job and we were doing ours. We are grateful to the management and specialists of the enterprise for meeting us halfway and helping us organize the photo shoot process,” his wife (Vera) added as she announced the theme of the next exhibition the couple are working on.

Among the first-day visitors to the photo exhibition There are a Lot of Different Professions, there were the actual heroes of the photographs as well as their families, friends and acquaintances, so there was a lively dialogue going on or people taking photos around every exhibit. 

“When they asked me if I could take part in a photo project as a subject, I declined. I just did not expect such a thing and got confused. But then I thought about it and accepted the offer. And I haven't come to regret it. The project has worked out well. The photos convey the atmosphere of a school break very accurately. The exhibition is most interesting as a whole as well,” opined Rushania Mukhamedyarova, whose caring hands make School No. 5 clean and tidy.

“Satka: City Code” street photo exhibition cycle has been held in Satka since 2021 with the support from Magnezit Group, Sobranie Fund, Satka District Development Assistance Fund. The Project exhibition spaces are in Proletarskaya street, in areas near the Magnezit and Stroitel Cultural Centers and at Ruina art-space.

Source: Magnezitovets. Photo by: Anna Filippova, Vera Panova and Oleg Panov.