Igor Karpenko
© Igor Karpenko, 1990, From BLACK&WHITE (Selfportrait).
About The Artist:
Igor Karpenko (b. 1964) moved to Kiev in the late 1990’s, but before that he was an active participant of the Kharkiv photography community. Karpenko was interested in staged photography, and he often used the same models as the other Kharkiv School artists in his work.
The Color Foto magazine (September, 1997) called Karpenko “Fellini in photography”, apparently referring to the gentle combination of humor and absurdity in his images.
Joseph Meehan, in Photography Year Book, 1998, writes: “Igor Karpenko ... plays with convention to portray subjects freely in the comic opera-like world he creates in his studio. ...His models are often fellow artists and actors, as well as family members, who all share his love of humour: especially its irreverent aspect. ...At times, his images take on a veil of black humour which make us wonder if it is appropriate to laugh at what we see. But Karpenko has honed his skill as designer of images to a point where we are pulled out of our indecision by some visual element he has placed the picture to make us laugh at ourselves as much as we laugh at his models. For in the end, the source of Karpenko’s staged humour is the way he cleverly reminds us that we are all but one pose away from becoming objects of humour ourselves.”
View Portfolio: Black & White
View Portfolio: Karl & Klara
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