CROSSROADS: CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN PHOTOGRAPHY

In a room, a monkey is about to drop a piece of paper into a ballot box and the title below the photograph reads, “Invitation to the sincerest form of flattery”. In another, a young girl with an elaborate hairdo burrows her face into the neck of her boyfriend. The sadness in his eyes shows another side to the much anticipated “School-leavers ball”. The five contemporary photographers displayed at Crossroads are so distinctive, you forget you are viewing the same exhibition but like a tapas dinner, the individual dishes add up to a satisfying and delectable meal. Curators Irina Tchmyreva and Evgeny Berezner have cleverly chosen Sergey Bratkov, Aleksandr Gronsky, Gregory Maiofis, Andrey Polushkin and Oleg Videnin to showcase each of their very particular styles to the idea of crossroads. Sometimes, the theme stand out like a crying woman on a lovers’ bridge and at other times, you have to search to understand the irony or look twice to see hidden clues in multilayered collaged old photographs. Beautiful, melancholic, ironic, tongue-in-cheek and eerie, this is a rare insight into Russia’s contemporary photography.

Until 30 Apr, Gallery 1 & 2,  Australian Centre for Photography, 257 Oxford St, Paddington. 9332 1455, acp.org.au