AES+F Group

Since its formation in 1985 by

Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, and Evgeny Svyatsky, AES has created an extensive and diverse body of work. Additionally many works have been created in collaboration with photographer Vladimir Fridkes, calling themselves instead the AES+F group, and it is with these works that this post is primarily concerned. The works are deeply unsettling, in their ephebo- and hebe- philiac tendencies, the icy cleanliness of both the youth and the digital landscapes they inhabit, and the portentous, if not religious, tableaux vivants they grimly comprise. I find the posed nature of the photographs particularly interesting, they are hyper-posed, not only has the documentarian aspect of 20th century photography been discarded, the constructed nature of the image has become a formal aspect, and the sterility of the images is borne of this formalization.

Anyway they're very nice.