Victor Kochetov
© Victor Kochetov
About The Artist:
Victor Kochetov (b. 1947) was not part of the Vremya group, but he used the Vremya photographers favorite technique of manual coloring more consistently than anybody else. Almost all of Kochetov's pictures of 1970's – 90's are hand-colored.
As an artistic technique, manual coloring originated in illegal commercial practice of making 'color' portraits by enlarging and colorizing b/w photos commisioned by people living in remote parts of the Soviet Union where color studio photography was either too expensive or simply non-exsistent. Boris Mikhailov conceptualized this technique in his famous Luriki series.
Unlike his fellow-artists' images, Kochetov's coloring is brutal and uncompromized. It turns his originally realistic gloomy b/w scenes of Soviet life into a work of kitch, as if taking to its extreme the social realism doctrine of showing the brighter side of reality in an effort to change it by means of art.
Author's annotation
The idea of adding color to a b/w photograph appeared with the invention of photography in the beginning of the19th century. Studio portraits were handcolored until color photography became easily available and technically achievable. So the idea is neither new nor my own. I remember the time when it was considered bad taste, and art exhibits announced that handcolored or toned photos would not be accepted.
A handcolored photograph is a visual mutant aspiring to break out of the traditional documentary framework into the realm of visual experimentation. Nowadays the handcolored image has returned to everyday visual reality in advertisement and at times photojournalism.
Victor Kochetov Portfolio 1970-1980s
We welcome your comments. VASA Exhibitions are the result of various curators, artist, and photographers.