On the Street

Dmitry Ryzhkov is a Moscow-based street photographer whose work offers the sort of fresh, edgy view of the capital you won’t find in glossy travel brochures, or coffee table books. Actually, his work is more a portrait of the city’s residents, of the vibrant force that makes Moscow what it is. Paul Richardson caught up with Ryzhkov and talked to him about the unique challenges (and dangers) of his particular artistic passion.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Well, I am 50 years old and live in Moscow. I’m former military. I studied nuclear physics, but that didn’t work out... I didn’t take it seriously enough. I left my studies and joined the army, serving near Chelyabinsk, not far from where the meteorite fell. This was 1983 and Afghanistan was just starting to boil. Thank God, I was sent to study in Kiev instead, which is a bit ironic, since I was born in Ukraine, when my father was in the army...

Right now, I work in a Moscow bank, doing shift work. This suits me just fine, because it gives me plenty of time to work on my photography. The pay is not much, but I don’t need anything more. Like most photographers, I’m a bit crazy about taking pictures, and I have enough to live on, so there you go. I’m married and have a grown son.

I have been photographing for about 30 years... I began to mess around with it after leaving school. My father did it as a hobby and we would print photos together in a darkened room, beneath a red light, then burnish them on the glass door to make the prints glossy. I remember how the prints would crackle as they dried in the breeze, often falling to the ground overnight, like fallen leaves.

My first camera was a FED, the Soviet analog of a Leica... I was immediately drawn to the streets, to people, and had very little interest in photographing landscapes or animals... still, I was young and grew tired of it quickly, spending more time on sports. Then came the army, and after about a six-year gap, I returned to photography bit by bit. About seven years ago I began to seriously focus my work on street photography.

“This was taken on Kuznetsky Most, where the famous Russian saxophonist Alexei Kozlov was playing. The babushka was recalling her younger years as a Moscow hipster, the way they lit things up at Arsenal.”

What is it that draws you to street photography?

It’s difficult to define. City life, of course, mainly takes place on the streets. But life is people, scenes, movement, emotion. I seek out subjects that speak for themselves, which don’t need any sort of explanation. I look for people who don’t hide behind some sort of mask. Where everything is written on their faces. In street photography, I am looking for life energy, drive.

When it comes to life, I am actually an optimist. And I use my photography to help keep me afloat, so that I don’t drown in some sort of wretched swamp of hopelessness.

Of course, there are times in everyone’s life when bad things happen, or things worse than bad happen, when things come unstuck, when you are crushed by fatigue, or when melancholy starts to destroy all that is alive in your soul. At times like this, I find that the constant flow of city life is a great help. I go outside, walk for kilometers, talk with people, and the desire to live and shoot photos returns.

“This was at the entrance to the underground passage that leads to Kitai-Gorod metro station. I had seen these women working several times and always marveled at their bravery. I tried shooting them a few times, but always something got in the way, someone turned away, or something else; and I needed to get this image showing both levels. I am still a bit unhappy with some aspects of this image, particularly how the people on the stairs turned away at just the moment I clicked the shutter. I would have liked it if there were equivalence above and below.”

How do Russians, in general, feel about your street photography?

I try not to advertise my presence. This does not always work, however, especially when you see something that is, from the photographer’s point of view, truly outstanding. Then all concealment is tossed aside and you start to work openly, in order to get the image you are after. In moments like that is when you can get hit upside the head.

Russians, in general, are rather tolerant of my activities. As a street photographer, I am rarely touched. But there are cases. Sometimes you come across aggressive people who, noticing a photographer, quickly start asking who you are and what you are doing, and try to pick a fight. If you do street photography, you have to be ready for that turn of events. I usually don’t allow myself to get pulled into altercations and try to quickly get away from any conflict.

Have you, over the past seven years, ever had any unpleasant incidents?

I have been assaulted a few times, but it has not gotten further than threats, brandishing of fists, or being hit with this or that, say a bag. A few times I was forced to delete photos under pressure from disgruntled subjects. Once I got into serious trouble when I was accosted by a gang of drug dealers at a train station. I had accidentally taken a picture of them. I had to calm them down and delete the photos. They let me go with a warning. I never saw them there again.

Police are pretty low-key when it comes to photographers. They don’t like to have their picture taken, but they won’t react seriously if you do. It hasn’t always been like this. Five or ten years ago, it was dangerous to photograph a policeman.

Most of your photos are post-processed to be black and white, not color. Why is that?

Previously, when I worked with film, I only shot in color. But color is a very complex thing. Attaining harmony of color in a shot is not simple, sometimes it is even impossible. Yet black and white has a certain harmony at its core. Color often distracts from the content of the image. Color is something external, decorative; black and white boils things down to their essence, to the core truths.

If, for a sculptor, creating a work means chipping away all the extra stone, for a photographer it sometimes requires removing color from the shot. Sometimes, in order to get to the innards of an egg, you need to remove its colored shell.

Still, I should say that I like nothing better than a color image, when all of the colors are in their proper places, expressing and emphasizing the image’s content.

As most photographers, you surely shoot far more photos than you show. How many photos would you say you need to shoot for each image you are truly proud of?

I haven’t done any sort of statistical analysis. I actually forget my work pretty quickly – I shoot, adjust, upload to my site, then forget it. And it is really not for me to judge which of my works are good, which middling – I’m an interested party after all. I’m just happy if some photo or other hits the target.

Honestly, I always see imperfections in my work. There is no ideal, especially in my own work. If there ever was an ideal image, then probably it has nothing to do with me, but is the hand of God.

“I photographed this old fellow near Arbatskaya metro station, where there is always a crowd of people. The guy was playing some sort of happy melody, while his face remained fixed with an expression that was entirely the opposite, full of despondency and despair.”

There was one truly classic Lithuanian photographer, whose name I cannot remember, to my shame. In one interview he said that every 400th image is a masterpiece. But he was talking about studio photography, on film. When it comes to modern street photography, the numbers are surely higher.

What are the qualities you would say make for a good photographer?

It’s difficult to say. Everyone is different, and everyone has different strengths. A good photographer should be talented and hard working, yet it’s hard to say which of these is more important. You have to be constantly developing, which means working, thinking, reading books, watching films and studying photography. Yet you also need to know when to stop, so as not to overdo it. It never works to try to embrace the unembraceable. You have to try to learn from others, take the best of what they can teach and not be conceited if you are successful. In my opinion, pride is not a crime, but it might as well be.

Dmitry Ryzhkov’s photos can be found online at: dmitryryzhkov.com