Boris Mikhaïlov — Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve
As a formidable experimenter of forms and images, of visual daring and techniques, Boris Mikhailov presents at the Suzanne Tarasieve Gallery a remarkable exhibition that bears witness to his determination to outwit symbols and keep his focus at the level of women and men in the process of becoming.
He draws above all on the harshness of the world to derive from it a muted beauty, marked by a recognisable aesthetic yet filled with an energy—poised between the joy of experimentation and a quiet desire for transformation—that tirelessly sustains hope.
Irony, mischief, gravity and lightness intertwine here through the fragments of life he inserts, whether in the form of added colours or alterations made to the images.
The fascinating paired series speak to us of a time and of events whose apparent triviality reveals their full instructive power. The futile blends with the grave and, in the course of captured moments, countless personal stories unfold: looks heavy with judgement or envy, the light breath of a suspended instant, the contrition of some, the doubt of others, and the full ambiguity of a society in which every silence signifies. The simple gait of an officer becomes suspect, for oneself as for others: is he helping a passer-by, or escorting them toward confinement?
Faced with such doubts, Mikhailov does not look away; he holds up his broken mirror to the world, whether or not it is aware of the stakes of life under surveillance. For at every moment, the human emerges: a smile, an outburst of joy defuses tension, and at times it is the photographer himself who plays with his lens, slipping mischievously beneath the outstretched hand of a soldier at attention, to photograph a youth compelled to respond.
Preferring undecidability to indecision, multiplicity to paradox, Mikhailov thus draws us into a world of doubt and muted horrors, yet no less strewn with dazzling moments of clarity that flow like water, leaving the viewer with the responsibility either to thread their way between the drops or to drown in them.
Boris Mikhailov, Reverse Perspective, from 8 November to 17 January 2026, Suzanne Tarasieve Gallery, 7 rue Pastourelle, 75003 Paris.
