Zürich
2012 – 2019
8 years ago I moved to Zurich, Switzerland from Rostov-on-Don, Russia. «Zürich» consists of photos I've done in my hometown over these years. I'm settled in Zurich now, my home is here, I know where tram lines go, how doctors appointments are made, how bills are paid. In Rostov I have no clue of such things: either I can't remember or my knowledge no longer applies. Though, every Monday I check the game results for Rostov football club, Russian Premier League. For some reason I also need to know about a car crash on Bolshaya Sadovaya str. 44 from last Sunday. Rostov is in my head: a mix of a vague memories and random snapshots of present. Every time I go back I feel like I'm looking at a world where I disappeared, but the world simply goes on. I see a parallel life - a life I could have had, and I feel the urge to photograph it.
"Zürich" was awarded with the 2nd prize the 23. vfg Nachwuchsförderpreis.
Jury statement by Salvatore Vitale, Chief Editor Yet Magazine and photographer, Lugano
How is to photograph present through memory? How to photograph a sense of belonging which is slowly fading away hopelessly? When Mikhail Bushkov moved from his hometown Rostov-on-Don to Zurich, he started to wonder about his past and the main differences his new life is presenting. Rostov became suddenly a chimera, a place which is impossible to forget but that, at the same time, flows away without any kind of control. Mikhail Bushkov photographs traces of his past compulsively, trying to gain control back. In this utopian context, he offers a diaristic view of what life in his hometown is - or used to be. He tries to keep alive that feeling of belonging that is going out of his hands. Delicate, lost in time, private as well as straightforward, his photographs manage to speak universally. In a time where the concept of home and belonging is drastically changing, photography can become a powerful tool to explore, keep, re-imagine, re-store, re-think our position in the world. There is certainly a need of personal stories and experiences as, through them, it is possible to create evidences of what, in a way or the other, affects and has effects in the life of others.
“Zürich" was a part of the ShowOFF section at Krakow Photomonth in Poland 25–23.06.2019.
A selection of images from “Zürich















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