SIGNED; Boris Mikhailov - Unfinshed Dissertation - 1998

Rare signed copy by Boris Mikhailov on the title page. 220 pages and about 100 pages of black-and-white photographs with handwritten annotations in Cyrillic characters and English translation on the facing page, with an English postface by Margarita Tupitsyn. Solid publisher's clothbound binding and illustrated dust jacket. This book is listed in Hasselblad, The Open Book, pages 376-377 and in Auer, 802 photo books from the M. + M. Auer collection, no. 746. Copy in excellent condition, almost like new.

Between 1984 and 1985, while the former Soviet Union was still a harsh reality, Boris Mikhailov was working on “Unfinished Dissertation” (Dissertation in Progress). He pasted photographs of daily life in Kharkiv, Ukraine, onto the endpapers of an unfinished thesis. In the margins, he scribbled fragmentary thoughts, diary-like observations, and quotes from his readings. These are reflections sometimes ironic, sometimes melancholic, on Soviet society, art, and photography. Mikhailov discovers beauty at the heart of the dreariness and absurdity of daily life in a provincial city of a decaying empire. His notes provide a stimulating counterpoint to the photographs: no matter how monotonous and banal life may be, the human spirit and its unwavering will to play always offer a final refuge to the individual. “Unfinished Dissertation” interlaces critical reflection, narrative fragments, and sequences of images that are at once spiritual, nostalgic, and enigmatic, thereby creating a new genre of artist’s book.

Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Mykhailov began his career as an engineer and educated himself in photography. He later became a factory photographer under the USSR, but was dismissed after nude photographs of his wife were discovered. From the 1960s onward, he devoted himself fully to photography. Throughout his career, he documented the disintegration of the Soviet Union, focusing on the lives of those marginalized by the evolution of the social order. His work as a photographer is widely recognized abroad—in the United States, in the Netherlands, Germany, and across Europe. In 1997, he received the Albert-Renger-Patzsch Prize awarded by the Dietrich-Oppenberg Foundation in Essen, Germany.

Copy in excellent condition, practically like new. Book from my personal collection kept with the greatest care. Shipped protected with reinforced packaging and internationally tracked postal service guaranteed. For multiple purchases, there is a possibility of grouped shipping with reimbursement of any excess postal charges paid via Paypal.

1.5 kg excluding packaging.