Sergej Maximischin

© Sergej Maximischin

“The Russian soul is an invention of Dostoyevsky,” says Sergey Maximishin. Following the collapse of communism, he continued to photograph the schizophrenia of an entire nation, his nation. “Russia is a country without floor or ceiling,” recalls Sergey. “Brilliance and stupidity, poverty and wealth, lowliness and nobility, the good and the bad: there are no limits to any of them. I’m not really interested in depicting an idyllic Russia. I prefer to show its more worrying aspects: the rise of the extreme right, alcoholism, religion, Chechnya or power.”

Sergey Maximishin was born in Kerch in Crimea. This peninsula on the edge of the Black Sea is home to the Russian military fleet and, at the time, belonged to the Republic of Ukraine. Until 2014, when it became part of Russia. But origins matter little to Maximishin. He is, first and foremost, a Slav. Early on, he left his homeland to study physics in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). And photography? He fell into it during his military service, where he was appointed an army reporter. He draws his images from a society that is proud of its Orthodox religious iconography and unafraid to toy with its Stalin-Marxist past: his photographs include images of naked men in traditional banyas (saunas), a Lenin lookalike on Red Square, and monks in the snow carrying a depiction of Christ. In Russia, you can flirt with both poverty and excess, and wallow in nostalgia or anti-conformism.

His photographs show “Russia in all its guises, nothing more,” states Maximishin. “It was not about constructing a portfolio or detailed review, but perhaps about showing a reality that is rarely depicted. Russia has often been photographed by foreigners who have not necessarily ventured into the country’s depths. More often than not, their work is too reminiscent of a tourist guide. Similarly, Russia is such a big country that the Russians themselves don’t know it all that well.” This journey into the Slavic mindset is marked by a mild folly that Dostoyevsky would not disavow.