Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents «Victory Day», solo exhibition of British photographer James Hill, as part of «Fotobiennale-2010» parallel program. The exhibition marking the 65th anniversary of the victory in World War II unites black-and-white portraits of Russian veterans made during the last four years.

The idea of the project originated in 2006. James Hill, fascinated by the Russian tradition of honouring the veterans of that war, decided to take pictures of them in the Gorky Park during the Victory Day celebrations. The preparations were minimal: a white backdrop was placed on a stand, and the elderly heroes stood there as they were. In 2006, the photographer portrayed women only, as over a million women fought in that war, which was an unprecedented example of women mobilization. Later, James Hill went beyond his initial plan to be limited with women’s portraits and came back to the Gorky Park on May 9 of 2007, 2008 and 2009, creating new series of portraits of women and men alike.

During 4 years, James Hill made more than 400 photographic portraits of veterans. The photographer gifted a Polaroid picture to each of them, to thank them for letting him take their portraits. The artist saw some of them just once and never met them again... «I realized that these veterans were nearing the end of their lives and with each passing year there were less and less. This already seemed to me to be the last chance to record these faces before the veterans, Russia’s most visible connection to the war, disappeared from view,» the photographer says.

James Hill’s photographs resemble mirrors — they reflect the history of modern Russia and all the deep and varied emotions that are therein. Faces of his heroes are full of contradictory emotions — happiness mixed with loneliness, sorrow mixed with pride. The author thus explains his method of working: «When I photograph them I don’t try to make a heroic pose. They are heroes, every one of them. Often I take 6, 8 or even 12 pictures of them, and after a few frames their position changes and something from inside starts to show. Mostly they are used to people taking just one or two pictures of them. And so when I spend a longer time photographing them, feelings that are not originally on the surface start to appear.»

James Hill’s portraits of Russian veterans also had a resonance outside Russia — in 2007, they were published in the special issue of American Photo magazine.