Maslov & Maslov: To Be Determined

Ukrainian-born, father and son photographers, Guennadi (Cincinnati) and Sasha (NYC) Maslov began a collaboration in response to the 2020 FotoFocus Biennial to depict the juxtapositions of their internal dreams against the external realities of their immigration from Ukraine to the United States. The intended project was unexpectedly besieged by a virus. Now a brutal existential crisis ensues and their intention has changed: it is to be determined.

Human history manifests a state of constant flux and photography manifests that circumstance: just as history simultaneously makes and takes away its significance through a record that dissociates it from the present, photographs return past moments for present evaluation and reevaluation.

Guennadi and Sasha Maslov are visual storytellers presenting humanity in a dispassionate past—the indomitability of the human spirit in an unspiritual world. Still-lifes from the Chernobyl exclusion zone feel more like intimate portraits of those who left than a record of far-reaching catastrophe, while portraits for international news outlets are more expository than the accompanying text.

Their photographs ask questions about those within the world: they do not tell us what to see, they ask us who we see. They emphasize the negative space around history, reordering the apparent conundrums and chaos into forthright presentations of both what is and what cannot be recorded, including the viewer’s perception. Their work asks us to reflect upon what is more impactful—fragile fleeting moments or the monumental sweep of history.