After about a nine-hour journey, I am unfolding from a car-seat shape into a human one, directly into the welcoming hands of Viktor Barkhatov, founder and curator of Cambridge Photography Gallery (CPG). First handshakes in person after a few online exhibitions and dozens and dozens of messages on Matrix.

My first move is to have a look at my part of the wall. Hmmm… first look and first blood: Viktor, I am going to kill you—where are my mini-essay titles?—and I am looking around at the same moment—there are no long titles at all under any pictures. Then I start to see, feel, and appreciate this clear, airy concept of space, light, and weight, like in a well-designed book. Touché. The visual story comes first, and the essays appear on printed sheets.

Viktor Barkhatov—photographer himself and cinematographer—knows how to handle space. And in this space, stories are unfolding and breathing—not cut down by social media into vertical images or algorithms pushing them away. It feels like I immerse myself in and emerge from various worlds, varied in subject and technique.

“Some projects unfold as a story, some as a pure impression, some as a statement, some as a visual experiment, some as a confrontation with current trends, some as a dialogue with painters; some explore the future, some explore the past, and some explore something deeply personal—rich, isn’t it?” Viktor sums up.

And these are, in essence, just a few threads pulled from the gigantic tapestry of what is happening in photography today.

“Unfold”—the title—is working on several levels here. “Yes—we wanted to show how many different approaches and forms exist in contemporary photography. We don’t mean just the variety of visual forms or technical solutions but generally, how photography unfolds. Cambridge Photography Gallery unfolds, too,” he says. “Ha, ha, ha—our small island in a huge and turbulent photographic universe. Well, my partner Ivanna and I wanted to create a platform connecting photographers with viewers and with other photographers. It might sound like a cliché—nothing revolutionary—but we feel that creating a physical space dedicated exclusively to photography is, these days, almost an act of rebellion, and we want to be part of it.”

I leave Viktor surrounded by onlookers and go back to viewing the photographs on my own. Will we find any groundbreaking, hitherto unexplored themes here? Definitely not. Nor is there any talk of a new technical revolution among the works on display. What makes this exhibition worth paying attention to is the way the photographers tell their stories. A thought begins to take root in my head: CPG has a knack for picking out photographers who truly know how to spin a tale and hold your interest. Will we, over time, start visiting the gallery’s website and turning up in person (fingers crossed) simply because CPG guarantees a good story? I reckon so. It’s just like with my favorite book publishers: generally, I can buy their books sight unseen. I’m rarely disappointed. Will visitors eventually come for the “names” on show—some known, some not—or will they go, quite literally blind, just to see a “Barkhatov” show?

Is it dangerous to unfold this question? Are curators—like your best publisher, VIPs, or celebrities, especially nowadays—becoming more important than the artists in the exhibitions themselves? Is it really a question of who matters more, or rather an intriguing discussion about a fruitful collaboration? In today’s world of information overload, where people can so easily feel lost, guidance can be a true relief—and the first station on a journey of discovery is guidance.

So, CPG’s first blood is drawn… Cheers, Viktor and Ivanna.

Exhibition: “Unfold”
Cambridge Photography Gallery (CPG) Viktor Barkhatov, Yvanna Pidruchna
9—11 October, Green’s Road, Artworks & Space, Cambridge

Featured artists:
Ghazal Abbasi, Gabriela Bartosik, Franciszek Chiliński, Julian Claxton, Yunjing Deng, Michael Dorohovich, Sabina Grams, Ian Hull, Katarzyna Janikowska-Leett, Renfang Ke, Geoffrey Legay, Yutaka Ogino, Hamid Reza Rahmani, Sue Ridge, StreetMax21, Cao Sen, Lorenzo Vitali, Nicole Waligórska

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katarzyna Janikowska Leett is a Polish photographer based in Wales who, after three decades in publishing, turned to photography to explore the overlooked details of everyday life. Working largely within the confines of her home due to arthritis, she creates minimalist, quietly provocative images that transform ordinary objects and forgotten spaces into visual stories, often accompanied by dry humor and self-deprecating reflections.