A new project of the street exhibition cycle Satka: City Code is presented in the Ruina art space near the Magnezit Cultural Center. The project is dedicated to the forthcoming City Day, which is November 19.

The author of the project is Roman Yakovlev, a young photographer from Krasnoyarsk, whose work became known to Satka residents and visitors through the “space” project The Karagaiskiy Quarry. A Flight to Mars, displayed on Proletarskaya Street. 

“Like many guests in our city, Roman loved the place with all of his heart. “Satka is a very cool city!” he believes, and these words of the photographer became the name of a new street exhibition,” says Diana Gurova, the project supervisor. “In contrast to when he was working on the Karagaiskiy Quarry exhibition, Roman didn’t have any specific objective or goal as he was taking photographs of the city. The project was developing spontaneously, from the artist’s impressions and emotions brought to him by Satka. Every one of his photographs is an atmosphere snapshot filled with sincerity and love and reflecting various feelings that he had as he walked around the city.” 

Diana noticed that the guest from Krasnoyarsk was able to see various aspects of our city and convey the romantic and the mysterious about it in his landscape photos. 

“The atmosphere in the images with the old timber houses is quite different – they reflect a riot of the brightest colours, which are good to see in any weather. The apotheosis of the series of photos of the old Satka was the collage, which seems to include hundreds of tiny houses from Russian folk tales,” the project supervisor continues. “In Roman’s photos, you can see the stories of people caught on camera, be it accidentally or not. All of them are focused on what they are doing. Someone is cleaning or repairing their beloved car, someone is riding a bicycle or crossing a street on a crosswalk The Beatles style (a shot inspired by the iconic photo by Iain Macmillan, which subsequently became the cover for the Beatles’ album Abbey Road), someone is out with their kids, and someone is being taken out for a walk by their beloved dog. Roman’s photos show animals and vehicles as full residents of Satka. Subtle humour and the aesthetics of color and photo frame run through all of these works. 

An attentive viewer will notice a characteristic thing about the photos, which is the combination of deep and hushed colors: pink, green, yellow, blue, red, as well as various shades or brown and grey. Their contrast, according to the project supervisor, is enhancing the complexity of the city, its energy; this contrast is a powerful tool to convey the moods flowing around inside the city, and its inner and outer beauty. All those feelings and emotions are present at once in the photographs with the rainbow. A rainbow is the energy of love that envelops Satka with an arch, which is like kind and loving arms protecting the city from dark clouds and woes. 

Source: Magnezitovets. Photo by: Vasily Maksimov.