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It is for the first time that the Russian Museum presents the oeuvre of Andrej Reiser, a famous photographer. 132 black-and-white photographs showcased illustrate three independent themes.
The first theme — Domenica (Domenica und die Herbertstrasse) — is represented with 34 images illustrating the life of a street prostitute Domenica from the Sankt-Pauli district of Hamburg; her house at Herbert Strasse. This series was commissioned by the Stern magazine, and was lately published as a separate album by the Eichborn Verlag publishing house (Frankfurt upon Mein), received many awards, including the Art Director Club first praise in 1982.
The next part of the exhibition comprises portraits of the world culture key figures, such as George Simenon, Bulat Okudzhava, Astrid Lindgren, Alfred Snitke, Guenter Grass and others, — 42 portraits altogether. Seeking to reveal the individuality and the inner world of those depicted, the artist shows these people without any environment, with their face and figure against the white background, nothing more.
The third theme — The Last Days of Leningrad — consists of 56 shots and was created in 1990, one year before the renaming of the city. This is a sketch of the megapolis atmosphere in the epoch of great changes, the epoch of search of a new position in the human society, of the feeling of the roaring novelty and anticipation of future changes.
Andrej Reiser, the grandson of the famous Russian critic Alfred Bem, was born in 1949 in Slovakia where he studied in the Prague School of Geography. In 1968 he emigrated to West Germany where continues study of photography as an apprentice of Professor Otto Steiner and Willy Fleckhaus. Having graduated from the school he worked in large German magazines. In 1983 he starts the Bilderberg — Archiv der Fotografien photo agency, which soon becomes a large union of photographers in Europe. In 1994 Reiser moves to the Chekh Republic where he still lives in Prague.
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