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From the story by Konstantin Bokhorov, PhD, for LensCulture:

Photography is the royal road into perspective-unconscious. That is, more or less, what Benjamin wrote about in “A Short History of Photography.” His idea became the principle of development of modernity in this art form. Vadim Gushchin subjects it to scrupulous analysis. In the new project “Cultural Treasures” he complicates the conditions of the experiment, introducing colour into his formerly classical black and white series of still-lifes.

Before, Gushchin also photographed objects capable of provoking frankness in the viewer. The project “Cultural Treasures” comprises a few series, the heroes of which are, for the most part, cultural objects. The books in his photographs do not simply refer to a specific time on the strength of the author/title, but because of their thumbed and faded state they cause tactile-olfactory experiences to arise from the past. Absolutely brand new envelopes demonstrate cardboard elasticity and unwittingly one has to suppress an involuntary reflex of the fingers folding a note to put in there. Musical laser discs, shimmering in the rays of a halted beam of light, as if they visually radiate music, cause something within us to resonate. The objects of this series address namely the cultural subconscious and compel one to think about the origins of that very culture which, as it turns out, is rooted so deeply inside us.

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Browse all of Vadim Gushchin’s work at ClampArt