Magnum Live Lab/19 exhibition held in Moscow

Read on the website Vestnik Kavkaza

An exhibition of the Magnum Live Lab experimental laboratory, organized by the Moscow Tourism Committee in cooperation with the Magnum Photos international photo agency, opened at the Shchusev Museum of Architecture. 121 best shots of the agency photographers made in the Russian capital during the winter and summer phases of the project are presented at the exhibition.

"Live Lab is a project invented at the Magnum agency. The agency photographers spend two weeks in some city, in our case in Moscow, and try to feel its atmosphere. These impressions can be seen at our final exhibition. Three projects from the laboratory’s winter session are also presented at the exhibition. So it's kind of a big project,"  the project's Moscow curator Nina Gomiashvili said.

Three photographers took part in the summer session of the Magnum Live Lab experimental laboratory - Gueorgui Pinkhassov, a Russian member of Magnum Photos, residing in France, Alex Webb from the U.S. and Mark Power from the UK.

"I worked nights, from dusk to dawn, 14 nights in a row. My task was to form my own idea of Moscow, visit those places that you would not find in guidebooks. I was wondering how different parts of the city are exposed in night-time lighting. Lighting was interesting indeed, not least because of the renovation projects. It was important for me to create a common composition - choose those images that work together and form together some kind of common canvas," Mark Power said.

According to the photographer, his experience of walking around Moscow was kind of strange: "It was an experience of walking alone. I went out at night, and although they say that Moscow never sleeps, it turned out to be wrong. It was enough to leave the main streets to walk in absolute solitude."

Laureate of international awards Gueorgui Pinkhassov also told Vestnik Kavkaza about his work on the project: "I just walked around Moscow right and left. I took pictures everywhere. I chose what was good. I went even to the most banal places and found something new there - Red Square, the Izmailovsky craft market. Usually nobody is allowed to the exhibition before the opening-day, but people came here for two weeks and watched our works."

The exhibition is open in the 'Ruin' wing until September 1. The admission is free.