Igor Vereshchagin

Igor Evgenievich Vereshchagin (29 May 1952, in Kamensk-Uralskiy) is a Russian music and street photographer.

Biography

Igor Vereshchagin was born on the 29 May 1952 in the town of Kamensk-Uralskiy of Sverdlovsk region. He graduated from the faculty of radiotechnics of Tomsk Institute of Radioelectronics and Electronic Technology (nowadays Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radio-electronics).

After finishing his studies at the institute, Igor Vereshchagin worked for several years at the electronic computing machines center of the Bratsk Aluminum Plant and later became the chief of its photo service. At the same time, he started photographing for some newspapers and magazines, but his dream to photograph musicians and street scenes came true only after he had left for Moscow.

Career

Igor Vereshchagin took his first photographs in 1957 when he was 5. Since then photography has become the sole purpose of his life. At the age of 42 he moved to Moscow where he met Artur Pilavin, a leader of the group “The Kvartal”. The musicians of the group were the first that Vereshchagin began to take pictures of in the capital.

The photographer soon got acquainted with Garik Sukachov, and took some photos of him by his own personal request at the MHAT (Moscow Art Theatre) concert on the 25th of October in 1996. Soon after the concert he received a new invitation and started working as an exclusive photographer for all of Sukachev's films: “The Crises of Middle Age” (1997), “The Holiday” (2001), “The House of the Sun” (2010). This period becomes the start of Igor Vereshchagin's active work with both home-grown and world renowned stars.

The subjects of his photographs were The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Chuck Berry, Iggy Pop, Ringo Starr, Alice Cooper, Boris Grebenshchikov, Elliot Erwitt, Sebastiao Salgado, Annie Leibovitz, Olga Sviblova, Boris Nemtzov and other remarkable people of our time.

The works of Igor Vereshchagin were published in many Russian and western magazines. For several years he worked as a member of a part-time staff in such magazines as: “Ogoniok”, “Sobesednick”, “Stas”, “Medved”, “Ptyuch”, “Expert”, “Photo/Video”, “Theater”, “Sputnick telezritelya”, “Zhivoy Zvook”, “Elements”, “ Week” (newspaper), ”Moskovskij Komsomolets” (newspaper).

Vereshchagin's photographs were also used for the designs of posters and covers of the musical albums, such as:

CD and DVD (covers) Garik Sukachov and Neprikasaemye (Untouchables): “A Concert at MHAT”, “The Front Album”, “My Visotsky”, “Goroda gde posle dozhdya dymitsya asphalt” (The towns where the asphalt starts to steam after the rain), “Crizis srednego vozrasta” (The Crisis of the Middle Age), (Obororoten s guitaroy) (The Werewolf with a Guitar), “5:0 v mayoo polzoo” (5:0 in my favor), “Campanella Kamennoy Zvezdi” (Campanella of Stone Star) Part I,
DVD (cover) of Sukachev's film “Holiday.”
Books “The King of the Boulevard”, “Surprising Alarm-clock”, “The House of the Sun”.
LP The Chaif “25 Years of Maturity” (double vinyl album).
DVD the Chaif “This Is Only the Beginning.”
DVD (cover) the Voskreseniye (Revival) “Don’t Hurry”, “Look how I Live”, “We Love You”, “Trilogy. Teach Me how to Live.”
DVD (cover) ”Mashina Vremeni” + ‘Voskreseniye‘ “50 Years for the Two”
CD (cover) Litsey “You Became Different”
CD (cover) The Kvartal “The World of Rose-colored Dolls”, “Time for Rent”
CD (cover) Alexander F. Sklyar “Vasya-Conscience”

The personal exhibition of Igor Vereshchagin, “Given and Stolen”, was held at MAAM (Multimedia Art Museum) on Olga Sviblova's and Sergey Smolin’s initiative from March 10th to April 16th. It was held within the framework of the Moscow Bienalle “Fashion and Style in Photography.”

On the 7th of June 2017, the famous photographer introduced, to the general public, his book “Given and Stolen” at the “Pioneer” movie theater. A special guest, a record producer from the Abbey Road Studios, Haydn Bendall, attended the event. The cult film from 1969, “More”, by a producer Barbet Schroeder, was also shown for the first time in Russia during this presentation. The soundtrack to that film is “Pink Floyd”, from a record album of the same name.

The exclusive edition of the book, also featuring autographs of the photographer and the characters of his monochrome set-ups, contains the best photographs of the master, carefully chosen by the head curator of the Multimedia Art Museum, Anna Zaitseva. The photographs of The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Chuck Berry, Iggy Pop, Ringo Starr, Alice Cooper, Boris Grebenshchikov, Elliot Erwitt, Sebastyao Salgado, Annie Leibovitz and other famous personalities of our time are represented among the works there. The limited edition of the book was published in Verona (EBS, Italy) and is included in the catalog of the publishing house “Aperture.”

Most Famous Photographs

Ringo Starr at the Press Conference in Moscow. Moscow 2011.
Iggy Pop in Moscow. Moscow 2011.
The Rolling Stones at the Airdrome. Moscow 1998.
Chuck Berry and a Young Fan. Moscow 1997.
Zemfira at her First Solo Concert at the “Olympiiskiy” Moscow 2000.
“Theodore and Karl” Theodore Tezhic and his Dog Karl.
Vladimir Fridkes with his Record “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
The Portrait of an American Photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Garik Sukachov against the Background of a high-rise on Kotelnichevskaya Embankment. Moscow.
75th Birthday of Seva Novgorodsev. London 2015.
Boris Grebenshchikov after the Concert at Crocus City Hall. Moscow.
Roger Waters at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Igor Vereshchagin's Birthday. Moscow 2002.

Interesting Facts

Vereshchagin's photograph “Iggy Pop in Moscow” adorns one of the walls of the house of a scandalous leader of the group “Stooges” in Miami.

The photo of Chuck Berry With a five-year-old girl from Moscow was taken in 1997 during the closing ceremony of the Moscow International Film Festival in that year. Twenty years later, after the death of this American musician, Vereshchagin managed to find the girl with the help of the newspaper, “Metro,” and presented the photo to her.

Igor Vereshchagin was the official photographer of the Rolling Stones during their first visit to Moscow in 1998.

Family

His wife is Vereshchagina Vera Vasilievna, an entrepreneur, and their daughter is Irina, born in 1974. They have grandchildren, Alina, born 1997, and Maxim, born 2003.

References