Valentin Samarin

Soviet and Russian artist, photographer, theorist.

The artist was born in 1928 in Leningrad in the family of a military man. After graduating from high school, he studied at the Faculty of Physics of Leningrad University, at the Naval College named after S. O. Makarova, at the Faculty of Philosophy of Leningrad University, at the Theater Institute, at the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute.

Despite the fact that in the early 80s the photographer emigrated to France due to the KGB persecution, he is a representative of the culture of the Leningrad underground. Valentin Samarin took an active part in the cultural and political life of Leningrad, defending the interests of artists of the "second culture". In 1978, the artist organizes the Studio 974 art salon in his own apartment. The studio regularly hosts exhibitions of Leningrad artists and photographers; the atmosphere of "total democracy" reigns in the salon. He took part in various art and cultural events in Leningrad, Moscow and Paris.

In his art, Samarin appears in the form of a chronicler of the most important cultural phenomena of the era. His photographs depict such significant events as the funeral of Andrei Tarkovsky in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, performances by Joseph Brodsky, and the procession in the Sergievsky Compound. Inspired by the performance of Leonid Jacobson's "Choreographic Miniatures", he is fond of ballet, and shoots theater and ballet performances a lot.

The artist calls his work the art of "sanki" — this is a special technique of "new old" photography on a silver-bromide basis. The basis is the "silver photography" technique, which has been widespread since the 19th century — it is monochrome photography, the basis of which is the photosensitivity of silver halides. In the process of developing a photograph in a laboratory, colors of a certain spectrum are formed on its surface. In the case of "sanki", a key role is played by a silver bromide emulsion sensitive to the violet region of the spectrum. Thus, thanks to certain chemical elements and the author’s approach to composition, Valentin Samarin’s works are full of surreal expression, mystery and flicker.
 
 "Sanki", according to the author, is "the mystery of old silver photography, the metamorphosis of energy projections that are invisible in normal photography, the metaphysics of the invisible projections of Light and Shadow of the spiritual world of a person, his passions". The word "sanki" itself is borrowed from the book on the ancient Chinese philosophy "Sensory energy". This concept reveals the phenomenon of invisible energy potentials of Time and Space that determine our earthly existence.