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.