Live from Kiev: visit of the Essential Goods exhibition

Vita & Boris Mikaïlov 

Born in 1938 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and trained as an engineer, Boris Mikhailov is a self-taught photographer. Early in his career, he was given a camera in order to document the state-owned factory where he was employed; he used it to take nude photographs of his wife. He developed them in the factory’s laboratory, and was fired after they were found by KGB agents. Today seen as one of Eastern Europe’s most important photographers, he has received numerous awards, including the 2015 Goslar Kaiserring Award, the 2001 Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize (now the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Award) and the Hasselblad Award in 2000. He represented Ukraine at the Venice Biennale in 2007, and again in 2017. He lives between Berlin and Kharkiv with his wife, Vita. In 2022, the MEP presented the most important retrospective devoted to the artist, Boris Mikhailov – Ukrainian Diary.

Juergen Teller

Juergen Teller was born in 1964 in Erlangen, Germany, and lives and works in London. He studied photography in Munich. Ever since the start of his career in the late 1980s, Teller has moved seamlessly between the world of art and the world of fashion photography. He makes no distinction between paid commissions and his own work, photographing all his subjects – members of his family, celebrities and himself – in the same natural and spontaneous manner, that of a highly sophisticated snapshot. His aesthetic seeks to underline the “imperfect beauty” of things. He shoots from unflattering and surprising angles and never retouches the results. For the past few years Juergen Teller has regularly produced self-portraits which border on the grotesque.

Olivier Frank Chanarin

Born in 1971 in London, UK, Oliver Frank Chanarin is an artist working primarily with photography. His wide-ranging practice is characterised by an openness to experimentation and collaboration. His work, though borne out of photography and a critical appropriation of photojournalism, culminates in different media including books, installation, sculpture and photography. Chanarin studied Artificial Intelligence as an undergraduate and held the position of professor of photography at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg (2016-2022). Chanarin is also a founding member of the masters programme in photography at The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Netherlands. He is one half of the duo Broomberg & Chanarin, whose work is held in major public and private collections including Pompidou, Tate, MoMA, Yale, Stedelijk, Jumex in Mexico DF, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Eye Amsterdam, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Cleveland Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art. Awards include the ICP Infinity Award (2014) for Holy Bible, and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2013) for War Primer 2; the Arles Photo Text Award (2018).

Simon Baker

Simon Baker has been Director of the MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris) since May 2018. He was formerly Senior Curator of International Art (Photography) at Tate, London, having been appointed Tate’s first curator of photography in 2009. Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor of Art History at Nottingham University. He has published widely on both photography and the history of art.

Isabella van Marle 

Isabella van Marle is an Amsterdam-based curator and creative consultant. She is the co-founder of Pictures for Purpose, a foundation that aims to platform important social issues whilst simultaneously raising funds for charities through the medium of photography. Her work spans curating, photo editing and concept development in the cultural sector. She has worked for Foam, Louis Vuitton Editions and the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, among others. Between 2017 and 2019 she was the fair curator of Unseen and for the second time she is curating Foto Tallinn.

Sonya Kvasha

Sonya Kvasha born in 1993, in Dnipro, Ukraine, is a creative director and producer based between Kyiv and Paris. She’s a co-founder at Baby Prod – a creative studio that works on making ideas reality across fashion and culture; and tripolar.ua — a series of pop-up events showcasing multiple angles of contemporary Ukrainian art and design in Paris.