Thresholds: Meet the Russian artist pushing boundaries at Photo London 2018

Working with cyanotype and silver gelatin prints, Russian artist Nikolai Ishchuk transforms photographs from representations into objects in their own right.

After becoming interested in the idea of photographs occupying space early in his career, the London-based artist now explores how each image comes into being. “Painters talk about what paint does, sculptors talk about materials, and I’m interested in what photographic stuff can do,” he tells The Calvert Journal.

His series Thresholds, which is set to appear as part of Photo London 2018, plays with basic photographic binaries: the difference between full exposure and no exposure at all. On one level, the images seem rigidly constructed, comprised of rule-based shapes and connecting corners, edges and midpoints. Yet they still have an elemental feel, with swirling shapes and textures.

“The arcs do not create perfect circles or ellipses, but they need to read like they just might. They could be close-ups of architectural detail, or sections of mathematical graphs, or depictions of something cosmic,” says Ishchuk. “[Each image] implies a different relationship to time and physicality, and Thresholds allows you to move between these layers.”

Thresholds will be exhibited at Photo London 2018 at Somerset House from 17 May — 20 May. For more information, click here.