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A beach holiday at a Black Sea resort was a part of the Soviet visual canon, a vivid postcard picture: from prestigious holidays in Gagra, to overcrowded beaches and “Artek” shifts. With the collapse of the USSR and the fall of the Iron Curtain, one would have expected a decline in the popularity of Russian resorts, but, as the author observes, today they continue to attract huge flows of tourists. Although some of the more prestigious resorts are developing their infrastructure, the picture remains unchanged since the Soviet times: Nikita Shokhov’s photos show the same forms of leisure and types of people depicted in those of his predecessors from the second half of the 20th century. “Black Sea” is a visual exploration of everyday life during the holiday season: an attempt to track down and mark the traditions of beach culture established in the USSR. Shokhov embarks on a journey along the Black Sea coast, which begins in a stuffy economy-class sleeping car on the Moscow-Anapa train, and continues in the hippie-infested Utrish and Olympic Sochi.
Located in the Northern Black Sea coast, near Anapa, the Bolshoi Utrish Nature Reserve is an area of dense juniper-pistachio forests, mountainous promontories jutting into the blue of the sea and spacious pebble beaches. From the 1960s it became a favorite nudist destination, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, nudist culture experienced a dramatic rise in popularity. Nikita Shokhov visited Utrish to see how beach holiday traditions have changed in the 21st century. He sought out his characters here, among the nudists, and invited them to take part in a staged photo shoot. The resulting portraits are stories of freedom, Crimean summer and a life reminiscent of an ancient myth, far removed from modern reality.
The series was awarded the World Press Photo Prize in 2014.
series
At night the city is transformed, its geography and the appearance of its inhabitants change: the back door and the front door change places, poverty and wealth, friendship and animosity merge until they become indistinguishable, with new law enforcers and guardians of order asserting themselves. It seems that the richer the city, the more opulent and darker its underside, the more resolutely it renounces itself in order to dissolve into merriment. It is a carnival in which base desires, ambitions and ostentatious luxury win out. Shyness is replaced by an all-consuming tenderness; joy is transformed into a trance. For five years Nikita Shokhov has been documenting the nightlife of the capital, selecting its most striking moments. The result is a series which reflects the socio-demographic cross-section of Moscow’s population. Having visited parties of varying character and composition, Shokhov compiled a gallery of types: from strippers to street florists and from Viennese ball attendees to hipsters – shaping the capital’s nightlife culture. Here time stands still, a fierce effort is made to create a relaxed, open atmosphere, and a mask reflects the true essence of the person.
