Svetlana Zakharova. Still frame

Photographer Vladimir Fridkes

‘Svetlana Zakharova. Still Frame’ by photographer Vladimir Fridkes is dedicated to global ballet star, Bolshoi Theatre prima ballerina, National Artist of Russia, winner of the State Russian Prize, and member of the French Order of Arts and Letters, the brilliant ballerina Svetlana Zakharova.

Svetlana Zakharova is at the peak of her career and is constantly in search of new creative outlets. She agreed to take on a new role, part of a creative duet between ballerina and photographer. Zakharova selected her partner, the photographer Vladimir Fridkes.

Svetlana Zakharova worked together with the photographer to create a new image for herself. Photography, a mirror with a magic amalgam, presented the opportunity to reveal the creative personality of the ballerina, to show her enormous potential. The work was done behind closed doors. For the museum, as for the viewers, this project is something completely new. Vladimir Fridkes’s project ‘Svetlana Zakharova. Still Frame’ sheds a new light on the physical and dramatic talent of this famous ballerina.

Svetlana Zakharova began dancing at the age of six. Aged ten she entered the Kiev school of choreography. In 1995, having won the Vaganova-Prix international young dancers’ competition in St Petersburg, Zakharova was given the opportunity to continue her education at the Vaganova Academy, where she went straight in to the third, graduating class. In 1996 she left the academy and was invited to join the ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre. She was 17. At the Mariinsky Svetlana Zakharova shone in major roles in ballets such as ‘Giselle’, ‘Swan Lake’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘La Bayadère’, ‘Le Corsaire’ and ‘Manon’. From 1999 Zakharova was a guest star at the world’s leading ballet companies, including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera, the New National Theatre in Tokyo and English National Ballet. She danced at the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Albert Hall, Covent Garden, and La Scala, where in 2008, Svetlana Zakharova was the first Russian dancer to be awarded the title ‘étoile’. Since 2003 Svetlana Zakharova has been prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre. Her repertoire includes the leading roles in classical productions such as ‘Giselle’, ‘Swan Lake’, ‘The Pharoah’s Daughter’, ‘La Bayadère’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Don Quixote’, and ‘Spartak’, as well as in contemporary productions such as ‘Serenade’, ‘Symphony in C’ and ‘Jewels’ by George Balanchine, William Forsyth’s ‘In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated’ and John Neumeier’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

This week the La Scala ballet company, with guest star Svetlana Zakharova playing the lead role of Giselle, performed to rave reviews at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. ‘Madame Zakharova was simply bewitching: tremendous legs, a delicate, animated appearance, almost incorporeal hands... The audience gave the company a standing ovation’, wrote the critic Geraldine Breteau.

Vladimir Fridkes is one of the most successful and influential Russian photographers. A leader in the field of fashion photography, he frequently takes part in Russian and international exhibitions. His work has been published in leading magazines such as Vogue, AD, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Cosmopolitan. Since 1996 he was been part of AES+F, one of Russia’s best known contemporary art groups.

In 2005 Fridkes worked at the Bolshoi Theatre, photographing the last 10 days before Russia’s main theatre was closed for reconstruction. His photographs, ‘Ten days to...’ were published in the book ‘Bolshoi’, which marked the reopening of the theatre. In 2012 the project was shown to great acclaim at Multimedia Art Museum. In working together with Svetlana Zakharova, Vladimir Fridkes continues his exploration of the field of ballet photography.