The exhibition of the photographer Goryachev presents those whom they love in absentia, but do not know

Off-screen animators turned out to be mysterious people: with a tram on their heads

Who among us knows the faces of the authors of cartoons? For example, director Leonid Nosyrev, who gave us Antoshka, who is going to dig potatoes, red, red, freckled, who killed grandfather with a shovel? Many people don’t even know the master’s name. The works of photographer Viktor Goryachev, presented in the House of Cinema at the exhibition “Faces of Animation”, introduced us to familiar “strangers”.

The idea to shoot animators came to Viktor in 2019, a few years after he visited the floating Russian-Ukrainian festival Krok. There were times when we lived together, traveled along the rivers of Russia and Ukraine on a ship, watched each other’s cartoons, met with the audience. Victor shared his idea with the editor-in-chief of Soyuzmultfilm, Sergei Kapkov, and a series of meetings with animators began. Victor invited future heroes to his workshop, where, according to the poet and screenwriter Vadim Zhuk, something like a performance took place. He was surprised by the directorial and partner qualities of Victor, where they spent three hours with his wife and animation film artist Marina Kurchevskaya. “He talked to us so simply and easily. Everything was according to Stanislavsky, according to the most expressive truth,” recalls Vadim Zhuk.

Victor managed to visit the creator of the image of Cheburashka, Leonid Shvartsman, on the eve of his centenary. The master shared the secrets of longevity: everyday work and a kind attitude towards people. Schwartzman was photographed with his wife Tatyana Dombrovskaya, with whom he lived for more than 70 years, and, according to Viktor, there was a lot of tenderness in this. As in the family portraits of Vadim Zhuk and Marina Kurchevskaya.

The dates show that the work on a series of portraits is decades long. The expressive black-and-white portrait of 1996 shows Aleksey Batalov, whose voice Yury Norshtein suggested bottling for therapeutic purposes and selling in a pharmacy. Animation characters also speak in the voice of Igor Yasulovich. His portrait is also graphic, and at the same time extremely picturesque. The profile of Armen Dzhigarkhanyan with a kitten whose eyes are like transparent blue aquamarines was captured by Viktor in 1996. A paired portrait of Vasily Livanov with his wife, production designer Elena, also dates back to the late 90s.

All portraits are unusual, and some with drawings. On the head of director Svetlana Andrianova is something like a hat-cake – two red trams from her cartoon “Two Trams” based on a poem by Osip Mandelstam, a tower with a sitting bird, a couple of lovers. Marina Kurchevskaya was painted on by her students with a hat, which is no longer worn in our time.

The famous artist Igor Makarov, Viktor Goryachev, offered to glue a child’s photograph to the portrait. To do this, he left an empty corner. Makarov began to look through old albums, look for himself in childhood, and only in the process realized what a brilliant idea it was. His portrait is complemented by a man walking along the grid of the city garden and not only. Everything here is black and white, except for a blue handprint on the body of a woman who looks like a cello.

Director Liza Skvortsova, a gentle creature, is presented as a sorceress, around whom everything turns into a whirlwind, black birds fly away, a bloody stain spreads.

Director Varvara Yakovleva is depicted in Charlie Chaplin’s mise-en-scène in The Gold Rush. She is wearing a recognizable bowler hat, holding massive black boots with red laces in her hands. Is there something next?