BORIS SAVELEV. Viewfinder, a way of seeing is the most comprehensive retrospective to date of photographer Boris Savelev (Chernivtsi, Ukraine, 1947), an artist awarded at PHotoEspaña 2024, whose vision was shaped in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. It was there—first as part of the prestigious Novator club and later as a freelance photographer for Russian and international publications—that he began capturing images outside the constraints of the rigid themes and the strong aesthetic rules imposed by the official Soviet photography.
Curated by Adam Lowe, the exhibition spans six decades in which Savelev became a tireless observer of anonymous urban life, a key element in his pursuit to reveal the fragility of the urban fabric. Chernivtsi, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, New York, London, Madrid, Dresden, and Vigo—the city that welcomed him after he left his home country following the Russian invasion—are all featured in the exhibition across different time periods. In all of them, despite the passage of time, we are able to share the photographer’s point of view and understand what he is observing in each moment. It is in these fleeting scenes that details—a manhole cover, a shadow, a beam of light—evoke emotions and reveal a poetic, complex reality.
From black-and-white to digital photography
BORIS SAVELEV. Viewfinder, a way of seeing consists of 103 photographs of various formats, accompanied by diverse materials from the personal archives of Adam Lowe and Boris Savelev, as well as three videos delving into his creative process, with particular emphasis on his ongoing effort to perfect photographic printing techniques.
The exhibition begins with black-and-white photographs taken in the 1970s and early 1980s, when Savelev began working independently in Moscow after completing his aerospace engineering studies. It continues through the cities that marked his career inside and outside Russia, culminating in a section dedicated to Galicia, with photographs taken over the last three years, since the artist set up a small studio and darkroom in his home in Vigo.
Galicia seen by Boris Savelev
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Boris Savelev and his wife, Natalia Bohomaz, fled Chernivtsi and initially took refuge in Madrid, later settling in Cambados and Vigo, where they currently reside. Since his arrival, the photographer has prepared and printed eight portfolios encompassing the work of his lifetime, while continuing to expand it—this time with urban Galicia as the backdrop.
The Gaiás Centre Museum is presenting for the first time half a dozen previously unpublished photographs taken by Boris Savelev across Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Lugo, and Cambados, which now form part of his new portfolio Diario galego.
His signature interplay of light and shadow, and his portrayals of anonymous daily life on the streets, remain central in these images—ones we can only place in time and space through architectural details, clothing styles, signage, construction barriers, or street furniture.
Capturing and printing light
«I need to control the color—here, there… everywhere.»
Framing—he never crops his images—along with color and the contrast between light and shadow, are fundamental for Boris Savelev. Printmaking has remained both an obsession and a field of constant experimentation throughout his professional career. His scientific training and perfectionist nature have led him to test a wide range of techniques to reproduce as faithfully as possible what he sees through his camera's viewfinder.
A skilled darkroom printer, he creates his own silver gelatin prints, and has also experimented with pictorialist techniques such as gum bichromate prints, Kallitype, Platinium and Palladium printing, carbon printing and many more.
In 1995, upon meeting Adam Lowe and Gerard Anière at their Decalcomania workshop in London, new possibilities opened up for Savelev through multilayer pigment transfer printing. His extensive expertise in this area led to an invitation in 1997 from the Spanish Centro I+D de la Estampa
Digital at Calcografía Nacional to run a workshop that combined traditional and digital methods.
In 2007, Factum Arte—also founded by Adam Lowe—built a special flatbed inkjet printer capable of building the image layer by layer, tailored to Savelev’s vision. Most of the photographs in BORIS SAVELEV. Viewfinder, A Way of Seeing have been reproduced using this unique printer on aluminum panels coated with gesso—a white primer typically used on canvases and other surfaces prior to painting. This method allows for the careful application of multiple color layers, which are then waxed and polished to achieve a final finish resembling the texture of realist painting.
