YEREVAN – Russian photographer Alexander Grebeshkov was born in Moscow in 1984. He practiced karate, entered a sports college after the ninth grade, and later continued his education at a university’s sports faculty. However, he never worked in that field and soon took up photography. At first, he shot portraits, clubs, and social events. In 2010, he made his first documentary series — photographs of an Orthodox mercy service. With those works, he won second place in a competition held by the Moscow House of Photography, earning a two-month trip to Paris. Since 2022, Alexander has been living and working in Yerevan. His personal website is: https://www.grebeshkov.net/.
Dear Alexander, let’s begin our conversation with the words of photographer Gisèle Freund, who said: “Photography can be both a document and a work of art.” How do you view your own photographs?
I don’t see much sense in such labeling. What is a document and what is art? It’s all subjective — especially when it comes to art. Photographs are simply photographs; I rather see them as messages, as visual texts. A photograph can be weak, mistaken, propagandistic, truthful, and so on — and always subjective! So, for me, both my own and others’ photographs are means of communication. The same can be said of art — we communicate using these tools. In the end, I think the real question is different: does what the author creates carry any meaningful message?
It seems you prefer black-and-white photography. The American musician Jack Antonoff once said: “Black and white creates a strange dream world that color can never achieve.” Do you agree with that?
Not quite. I often choose black and white because cities usually aren’t rich in bright colors — or they create a mess of pastel tones that blend together and don’t express much. Their combinations often convey nothing. Black and white eliminates the unnecessary. Although sometimes I’ve managed to make color shots with muted tones that worked well — but that doesn’t happen often. Most of my color photographs aren’t about color; I use it only to convey atmosphere.
I also love black-and-white images. But it seems that you see Armenia mostly without its colors. Is that so?
