Alexey Titarenko was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1962. In 1983, he received a Master’s degree in Cinematic and Photographic Arts from the Leningrad Institute of Culture.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 he produced several series of photographs about the human condition of the Russian people during this time and the suffering they endured throughout the twentieth century. To illustrate links between the present and the past, he created powerful metaphors by introducing long exposure and intentional camera movement into street photography.
Titarenko’s prints are subtly crafted in the darkroom. Bleaching and toning add depth to his nuanced palette of grays, rendering each print a unique interpretation of his experience and imbuing his work with a personal and emotive visual character.
His works are in the collections of major European and American museums, including The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; The Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA; Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, MA; European House of Photography, Paris; Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL; Santa Barbara Museum of Fine Arts, CA; Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, NJ; Reattu Museum of Fine Arts, Arles, France; and the Musee de l’Elysee Museum for Photography, Lausanne, Swoitzerland.