Arnold Mariashin – Imperfection

Girl with Swordfish Head - Gelatin Silver Print - 28x38 inches

Photography is documental, documental in its essence – since its inception, and this is deceiving and irritating. The aim of a photograph to be, above all, an artistic image is often neglected, and is rather seen in being merely a formal confirmation of existence.
Arnold Maryashin makes an attempt to steer photography towards its fine arts origin — to prove that photography is something greater than a technical recording of reality. In achieving this, it has been necessary to change methodology of producing an image, rethink contemporary trends, return to original techniques.

Technology used in producing an image usually dictates (determines) its perception. Today’s digital imaging is complete in all respects, and therefore capable of capturing the surrounding reality without flaws and with a hundred percent accuracy. It leaves nothing to an audience. Nothing to ponder about, nothing to dream of. The audience simply collects information – although, information of a high quality.
Arnold Maryashin’s photographs are technically imperfect. Created manually from the beginning to an end, they represent the energy of his hands, his memories, his feelings and thoughts fixed in silver. This is not “Augenblick Verweile” (a still moment), but a picture integrated in time, painted with a help of a brush and light. In this picture, the audience can find space for their own fantasy, their own experiences.

Arnold Mariashin was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). His first experience with photography was at age eight. He has continued to work with pictures in various media, graduating from the State University of Arts and Culture with a degree in film directing and a minor in photography and history of composition. His archive counts hundreds of unsorted gelatin silver prints, some of them made in very limited editions of one to five prints. He uses home-made small and large format cameras and develops and prints in a small darkroom set up in his apartment bathroom. According to Mariashin, photography is impressionism, yet it is a document indissolubly linked to real life.

You may find the photographs of Arnold Mariashin in The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Photo Verdeau Gallery in Paris and many private collections around the globe. The largest collection of his artwork currently belongs to the Varshavsky family in San Francisco.

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