visual artist and investigator
Oleg Iakovlev
I explore identity, home, memory, and language through visual media
Bio
I was born and raised in Moscow, and since 2022 I have been living as an emigrant in different countries and societies, continuing to explore favorite topics such as "identity", "home", "memory", and "language".
I also work as a documentary filmmaker.
With a background in psychology, urban science, visual arts, and design, I have gained extensive practical experience as an emigrant over the past years, living in ever-changing conditions, which enriches my professional and personal experience.
I studied social psychology, urban development, visual art, and UI-UX design: all these different fields help to get a multi-dimensional vision.
I also work as a documentary filmmaker.
With a background in psychology, urban science, visual arts, and design, I have gained extensive practical experience as an emigrant over the past years, living in ever-changing conditions, which enriches my professional and personal experience.
I studied social psychology, urban development, visual art, and UI-UX design: all these different fields help to get a multi-dimensional vision.
My projects
"Lucky Break" — self-documentary, investigating identities. Created with support of the Bauhaus University of Weimar.
I started my project immediately after leaving Russia in March 2022 and finished filming around the end of 2023 — after the start of the war in Israel.
My project (in the form of a documentary film) is a search for the anchors of identity that make up us (me): language, home, orientation. What and how shapes us, how much control can we have over this process, especially being temporarily or permanently away from ‘home’?
I started my project immediately after leaving Russia in March 2022 and finished filming around the end of 2023 — after the start of the war in Israel.
My project (in the form of a documentary film) is a search for the anchors of identity that make up us (me): language, home, orientation. What and how shapes us, how much control can we have over this process, especially being temporarily or permanently away from ‘home’?
"The Favorite Place" is my ongoing project about cities and their inhabitants, which I have produced since 2018. Here is the first one: "The Favorite Place: Berlin". Forty participants from 23 countries showed me their favorite places in the city. The project was exhibited more than 15 times in Moscow, Berlin, Tel-Aviv, Tbilisi, and other places.
"Nostalgia" is a longing for something that is no longer there, or perhaps never was. We close our eyes — to dream, or just to blink for a moment and accidentally see with the side-eye of a fickle memory what was once dear.
"Life Must Go On!" documentary
I moved to Israel to avoid being involved in Russia's war against Ukraine. But soon the war found me here too. I had no loved ones affected by the Hamas attack, and it seemed important to me to make a film about the victims: to feel connected to the country and to keep the testimony alive.
As a non-Jew and a very "young" citizen, I consider my view to be quite impartial and quite sympathetic: an important combination for a documentary filmmaker. Due to overwhelming politicisation of the topic, it was important for me to show human sufferings from the psychological point of view: no statements but only communication with personal trauma.
I moved to Israel to avoid being involved in Russia's war against Ukraine. But soon the war found me here too. I had no loved ones affected by the Hamas attack, and it seemed important to me to make a film about the victims: to feel connected to the country and to keep the testimony alive.
As a non-Jew and a very "young" citizen, I consider my view to be quite impartial and quite sympathetic: an important combination for a documentary filmmaker. Due to overwhelming politicisation of the topic, it was important for me to show human sufferings from the psychological point of view: no statements but only communication with personal trauma.
"Music of the Walls" is my collaboration with music composer Sergei Vasilchenko. This is an investigation of how street art may be sublimed and reflected with classical piano music improvisation.
The presentation to the project took place in the "DUST" space, Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2023.
The presentation to the project took place in the "DUST" space, Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2023.
Ballet "Lolita". In 2010 I had the honour of creating the video backdrop for the ballet "Lolita", based on Nabokov's novel - the world's first ballet production. I benefited from both my knowledge of my favourite novel and a lot of photographic material created during the ballet's US tours, on which I was a staff photographer in 2007/8. I've also created a photobook based on the photos used in that ballet backdrops.
My challenge was to give the atmosphere of the stage on the one hand and not interrupt the action of the ballet dancers on the other. Also, given the bright colour scheme of the lighting, I decided to opt for a monochrome performance, which became ‘coloured’ through the work of the lighting staff. I had the good fortune to work together with the principal artist Valentin Fedorov and the stage director Anna Grogol-Aleksidze, with whom we performed the ballet not only at the Chuvash Opera and Ballet Theatre (Cheboksary), but also took it on tour to Moscow.
"LOLITA" Ballet (Anna Grogol-Aleksidze)
The State Chuvash Opera and Ballet Theatre (Cheboksary) 2010
Essential Portrait. This is my ongoing project from 2010: I try to find a person's essence using monochrome portrait photography. This experience is in between psychotherapy and photosession. I aim to help the person to make the connection between its inner perception and visual external representation.
My goal is not only an outcome that will ‘please’ the protagonist, but also a valuable process: the experience of openness, trust and vulnerability expressed and preserved in photographs: a visual fact-memory of the experience of trust and togetherness.
Essential Portrait
Male Body: Sexuality and Vulnerability.
My approach has been the same for years: to reach others' identities through photography instruments and to investigate sexuality, vulnerability, beauty, aging, and body representation.
Understanding my queerness only after 30, I need to delve into the male body concept and investigate it with my common way: photo-objectivation method.
Now I'm looking for the publisher to finish the photobook.
My approach has been the same for years: to reach others' identities through photography instruments and to investigate sexuality, vulnerability, beauty, aging, and body representation.
Understanding my queerness only after 30, I need to delve into the male body concept and investigate it with my common way: photo-objectivation method.
Now I'm looking for the publisher to finish the photobook.
The Age of AI
Work in Progress
I am endlessly excited and fascinated by the intersection of language, meaning and collective memory in the performance of visual AI: what is the signified and what is the signifier? Who and how does one set the ‘norm’ and equate prompt and result? How can AI be used in the documentary genre to make up for the experiences of (minorities) not recorded by traditional methods or to protect the vulnerable protagonists of contemporary documentary research?
All these topics and questions excite me and I am eager to find answers. What is authenticity in the age of AI? We experience real feelings when contemplating generated content - what then is the fundamental difference between it and the ‘real’, apart from the technical answer? I am concerned with the ethics, psychology and sociology of human (and humanity's) interaction with AI.
Here are some shots from unfilmed movies which I want to produce:
Here are some shots from unfilmed movies which I want to produce:
The project ‘Shifting Identities in the Age of AI: Visual Memory and Digital Transformation’ will explore the intersection of digital identity, collective memory, and AI.
It will analyse how neural networks, applied to iconic historical photographs, can rewrite visual narratives, question our perception of history, and transform collective memories.
It will analyse how neural networks, applied to iconic historical photographs, can rewrite visual narratives, question our perception of history, and transform collective memories.
Contact me:
photofreedom@gmail.com
