Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art presented an exhibition of photographs by Rust2D illustrating how the outer, physical perfection of the bodies reflects inner beauty and spiritual strength
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Images born from both the artist’s vision and the dancers’ self-expression
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Concise or densely populated, but invariably clean-cut compositions free of unnecessary details
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Action-packed short stories featuring models completely absorbed in improvisation
Rust2D took up photography in the early 2000s, during his internship in London: casting aside his regular job, he dived headfirst into this new pursuit. Upon returning home, he became one of the first Moscow-based digital photographers, soon to be much-in-demand for his glossy shots and portraiture, but still in search of his trademark subject and distinctive creative self. Rust2D has been training his lens on contemporary dance for more than 12 years, capturing his dancer friends and their sculpture-like bodies, trying to eternally preserve their physical perfection. The Triumphers over Gravity show at Erarta is pure ‘art for art’s sake.’
The artist’s style is characterised by clean-cut composition and lack of unnecessary details. Everything seen in the pictures – including backdrops and dancer costumes – has been enthusiastically searched out or hand-crafted by Rust2D himself. However, the photographer’s most important tool is not tangible: it is the carefully arranged lighting accentuating the dancers’ defined muscles and elegant moves.
Rust2D comes up with an idea and constructs the environment, letting the dancers populate it. The resulting image is a product of both the artist’s vision and the models’ self-expression. Every shot looks like an action-packed short story with its own subject and intricately woven plot. According to the photographer, his secret lies in ‘letting go’ and becoming one with the dancers: while they improvise, he ‘documents the magic.’ That is how the distinct atmosphere of each frame is born.
‘Art is the individual proof of creative freedom,’ says the artist, and the camera echoes his words, capturing models completely absorbed in improvisation and preserving the rapturous moment of release from everything, including the laws of gravity. Rust2D’s camera is capable of expressing the amazing paradox of how the toiling work of dancers creates the impression of incredible lightness. The outer, physical perfection of the bodies reflects inner beauty and spiritual strength.
Photographer, visual artist, and theatre set designer working under the moniker of Rust2D was born in 1978 in Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast. Upon graduating from the Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics in 2002, he did an internship at the Cranfield University in the UK and took up photography in the same year. Having collaborated with major Moscow theatres, dance companies, and the Russian State Circus Company, he also contributed photographs to the Russian editions of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, Ogoniok and Kommersant, as well as the US Playboy.
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