Persistence do not bother the carpenter. As the famous photographer is recognized, he early stood perpendicular to Soviet power. And did everything possible to bring her end closer. In his youth, I took myself a pseudonym Petersburg and swore to be published under it until his native, beloved city will not return the historical name. And the magazines "Soviet screen" and "Soviet theater" in his stories are constantly turning into "anti-Soviet". But it did not bother Valery to love people who inhabited the USSR. And photographs them as no one could no longer. Mikhail Boyarsky was ready to go to the shooting in the trunk, composer Svyatoslav Richter - to wear a sweater who "stifled", and Alexander Abdulov and Leonid Yarmolnik - to pose what mother gave birth.
Valery, you graduated from school at the Academy of Arts. Was it a choice of parents?
Valery Plotnikov: "Not parents, but her husband's sister's husband - Uncle Kolya. He really wanted anyone from our family to be in people. "
He was an artist?
Valery: "No! About Uncle Need to tell separately. He comes from Odessa, a unworp. Somehow moved to the city on the Neva, I met a lady on the name Lenskaya - the star operetta. She adopted him. So he remained in St. Petersburg ... Let's help you. (We have been drinking tea while talking about the conversation, and he moves the dishwasher so that I can conveniently place a voice recorder. - Approx. Auth.). In general, I am a terrible pedant, my grandmother raised me. Thanks to her, I could not get used to the Soviet way of life. "
Tell us about my grandmother.
Valery: "Grandma was an amazing person. Every summer she shot ... Well, you won't call the house, the barn rather - on the Karelian Ist. It was such nostalgia along the past, pre-revolutionary life, when families for the summer traveled from St. Petersburg for the city. Well, at this "Dacha" I, being a child, overheard her conversation with her mother. Grandmother asked to find authentic documents of our family, which were kept in the temple of Anna Growing and Simeon God Approach on Mokhovaya. Mom never managed to accomplish this request. But later I did it, thanks to the intervention of Anatoly Alexandrovich Sobchak, with whom he was well-known. From the archive, I learned that all the grandmother's children are the other year of birth. She wanted to lead them from under the punishing sword, which could overtake them because of the pedigree, and rewrote from the pre-revolutionary dates of the birth to post-revolutionary. In the same documents, it was my grandmother - "Princess Shakhovskaya, nee city of Paris". The only thing I could do for my grandmother is to knock on her granite stove: "Princess Shakhovskaya, nee city of Paris."
From left to right: Mom Sergey Solovyov, Caleria Sergeevna, family friend, Semen Yakovlevich, Valery Plotnikov, Sergey Solovyov, Tamara Vasilyevna carpenter, 1965. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
You told in an interview that from the Small years was surrounded by wonderful people: Lion Dodin, Sergey Soloviev, Mikhail Shemyakin ... Have you been friends at the place of residence? Everything, probably, lived in the center.
Valery: "Not all. In fact, I was the most center. He lived in Nevsky. Seryozha Solovyov - on Kherson, leva is also there. Shemyakin in general on a rustic one. Just so wonderful it happened that we made friends. I entered the school at the Academy of Arts. With me at one desk was sitting Misha Shemyakin. So I know him since childhood. At fourteen, I made friends with Solovyov's Seryozhev, and he already brought me with his classmate left diving. Due to the fact that I lived in Nevsky, the concentration of surprisingly talented people was then only increased. With Joseph Brodsky I introduced a wonderful saleswoman Lucy, who worked in the house of books in the poetry department. We had five years difference with Brodsky, but at the time of dating he seemed to me an adult man. It is clear why: I was then fifteen years old, and he, respectively, twenty. It's nice that Joseph was located to me. Unfortunately, I never removed it. Although invented how it would do. In his room, in the house of Muri. The Brodsky has a stunning well-hoist. Apartments in old pre-revolutionary houses "cut", and the height of the ceilings remained the same. So it turned out such an upward premises. All walls in Brodsky's room, except the window, were in books. I represented that somehow I am fixing on the ceiling, and I was not very worried - like. At the bottom will sit Joseph, and I will rent it in this "well." And while I tried to get a wide-angle lens, which was needed for this shooting, it was certainly, Brodsky was sent from the country. "
How did you meet Sergey Dovlatov?
Valery: "It happened in New York, Sergey by that time lived in America. And I went there at the invitation of the familiar Correspondent of Newsweek magazine. My then I stayed in America for more than a month in America, and I removed a lot of things there. (Brings an album with their photos. - Approx. Auth.). That's even there are several frames from that trip. I took all my equipment and studio light! Vasily Aksenova, and Vladimir Wornovich, and Sergey Dovlatov, and the editor-in-chief of Radio "Freedom" Peter Wailya. By the way, Evgenia Yevtushenko, I also shot in America - he was there at this time. "
Valery at the cottage at Andron Konchalovsky on Nikolina Mountain, Photo Beat Tyshkevich, 1968. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
Modern glossy publications make a photo session for themselves, under their format - rarely buy ready-made. Have you usually ordered the shooting of a particular character?
Valery: "Sometimes, of course, ordered. But it was just my life. I have an absolutely specific story, why I began to engage in photography. We at that time were guys educated. And Anna Akhmatov, and Mikhail Zoshchenko. I knew how Akhmatova looks like. According to the same paintings of Altman, Modigliani, Petrova-Vodkin. And we go to Mikhail Zoshchenko Street, which was still alive, or the same Eugene Schwartz - they would simply be happy. It was terribly frustrated. And I decided that I would make my generation recognizable. I had a sixth sense from youth: I, looking at a man, understood, it is worth something or not. For example, Yuri Lyubimova in those days no one asked to shoot and Andrei Bitova - too. Portrait of Okudzhava Bulat, in my opinion, someone ordered ... (lens the album.) But this photo of Filatova's laspiece (the actor sits in a suntuka and the cylinder surrounded by the ladies. - Approx. Auth.) I did a lamb. Or take a shit. I knew that he did not like to take off, but he managed to persuade him. Or this photo of Arkady Isaakovich Raykin ... "
On the set of the film "Residence permit", with a mannequin Bella. Riga, 1971. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
And how did you agree with the characters about the shooting? It was impossible to approach the raykin so just to get a photo session?
Valery: "No, of course. With Arkady Isaakovich, I was familiar thanks to the family of my wife Irhad Cassil-Sobinova. And dreamed of removing him in the Petersburg interior. At first I came to him in the house on Kamennoostrovsky. Well, yes - the apartment. In a wonderful prestigious place, but the interior was very simple. Then Arkady Isaakovich went to Moscow, lived next to the Mossovet Theater, but the situation of that apartment was also not very suitable for my idea. And here Rykin, already in the last years of his life, arrived in St. Petersburg on tour. I have long rented, so I know that artists and musicians tolerate cannot be photographed before the concert - it distracts them. And after the speech, they already do not need, because they are squeezed as lemon. But I still persuaded Arkady Isaakovich to give me fifteen minutes before the speech. "Good, Valerchka", - Pobedel Raykin. But there was another difficulty. A white suit that I wanted to see on the artist in the frame, he put on in the second office, and in the first went out in an ordinary jacket and a tie. I asked: "Arkady Isaakovich, put on, please, on the shooting of a white costume." - "Yes, yes, good, Valerchka." For fifteen minutes before the start of the presentation, I build a light on stage, I crushed into one of the corners of the scene, a lamp, made under the ancient, picture, chair - I create a Petersburg apartment. Arkady Isaakovich comes in ... a particular jacket. All horror is that DC them. Gorky, in which all this happened is huge, and even the dressing rooms are located on the second floor, and not next to the scene. And Arkady Isaakovich then walked very slowly. I take it under the lochot, and we move to the dressing room with the highest speed. Under the hissing and cursing of its environment. Somehow reached, changed, returned back. And you still have to plant an artist, put the light ... By the way, the bow tie in the picture is mine. During the preparations, she got lost. But when I presented that I would now go to him also to correct the butterfly ... I would definitely come up. Now, this butterfly photoshop was moved into place. Then the kitten approached (Konstantin Rykin) and asked to take a picture of him with his father. And three minutes as a performance was supposed to start, five, seven ... It was just unheard! Raykin always started a second per second. I quickly removed their two, then crushing all the equipment for the scenes and exhaled. But the hassle was worth it. There was a beautiful photo. "
Portrait of a baycstitis baycstitis actress. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
And Tatyana Peltzer and Alexander Abdulov in the costumes of "memorial prayer" you also shot before the play?
Valery: "I have persuaded Sasha for a long time to do this photo. He fell: "Yes, that you, the grandmother is very sick." Tatyana Ivanovna was brought to the theater from the hospital and after the performance was taken back. Before starting, it was impossible to remove it because Sasha rehearsed with her. It was very touching. Peltzer was already poorly focused in space and often forgot words. Abdulov said: "So, grandma, we leave from what kind of scenes? Pra-a-Aport, from the right. Do how many steps forward? Pra-a-Aport - five. What am I talking to you then? And you to me?" And so every time.
Well, that's what to do ... In the "Lenkom" then there was a wonderful artistic buffet in the basement. I grew there all that I could, put the light, the camera, and we in the intermission of Tihonhechko brought Tatyana Ivanovna on the elevator down, we sat her in the chair. In this photo, Sasha still, of course, stunningly played, but also in Tatiana Ivanovna Peltzer is not visible, in which she was. This photo is now hanging in Lenkom's lobby.
In an interview, you have repeatedly mentioned that they often dressed their heroes. That is, they worked as a stylist ...
Valery: "... and even a makeup artist, however, only when I removed the men. Well, to take at least this photo of Efim Copena in a white raincoat. He, by the way, Yugoslavsky, still hangs at me at the cottage. In the same raincoat, I was filmed by Vladislav Nerlazhasky, young Ilya Reznik, someone else ... When my steppe and I did the album number 01, I noticed that Sergey Apollyanovich Gerasimov, Yuriy Typhones and Typhones appear in the same sweater Kolya Karachentsov. Oleg Efremov, and Innokenty Smoktunovsky were shot in it. That is, this sweater, which was brought to me from England, is really deserved. With clothing in those years there was a crazy problem. Yes, and many actors dressed enough tasteless. "
Arkady Raykin Photographer filmed in fifteen minutes before the start of the performance. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
And no one said that he would not put on someone else's?
Valery: "No, no. The only person who at first resisted is Svyatoslav Theofilovich Richter. Ingenious and as a musician, and as a person, but his clothes simply did not worry. I found a beautiful dark countertop, asked the wizard to change clothes for shooting in a sweater. To which I received the answer: "I can not, Valera, he stifled me." And what to do? This sweater is needed in the frame. Here the Richter's wife is included in the room, Nina Lvovna Dorlyak, - I just sent her heaven! "Stasik, if Valery says, it means to wear." And he put on! "
I can not ask about shooting Lily Bric. You have managed to capture a woman who was a great love of Mayakovsky.
Valery: "Here we sit now with you, talk, and you don't even imagine that I am for a minute, the only surviving" contemporary "Vladimir Mayakovsky".
???
Valery: "Document is! I had an exhibition on "Winzoda", and the organizer girls made a press release in which the following was written: "Among his legendary characters was Lily Bric, with whom the photographer introduced Vladimir Mayakovsky." (Laughs.) And the approach is continued, "the story was repeated." At one time, Mayakovsky acquainted BRIC with Alexander Rodchenko. So I walked the "contemporary" Mayakovsky. And after a while I was asked to remove her portrait for Italian Vogue. Against the background of Zhostovsky trays that hung on the wall of her dining room. This was the same case when I received a concrete Editorial Task. I come, I look at these trays and I think: "Well, yes, for Italians, it is probably great, such" Cranberry raised ". But this is not at all. " Just in case I perform the task - I take off on the background of trays. But it's not at all! I suffer and do not know what to do. In those days, the equipment was imperfect, I also composed about this. I did not know then that I was "contemporary" Mayakovsky. (Smiles.) Lily sees that I am some kind of hurt, and also begins to strain. I am right looking forward to when she says: "So, a young man, here is God, but the threshold. Learn to shoot - come. " To delay this painful moment, I say: "You know, there is nothing to breathe here, let's arrange a small break." And I swamps myself, I think what to do. I go to the next room and see the sellel sofa, the Mayakovsky posters, the photographs of the dentition of times Rodchenko, some books and understand - this is what you need! And when I know for sure what I want, I behave confidently. It felt lily. I made photos that she really liked. Until the end of the life of Lily Brick we were friends. The most interesting thing is that the Italians chose my frame, and not with trays, and made it for a whole reversal. "
Thanks to Irina Sobine-Cassil Carpenters met Arkady Raykin. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
Here I see another beautiful photo of Andrei Mironova ...
Valery: "I did this frame already in the workshop. And the first photo sessions of Andrei were still in Camerogensk, in the apartment of Sobinov, in the kitchen, from which I made a photo studio. Who was not shot there! And the Bulat Okudzhava, and the whole wonderful series of Vysotsky with Marina Vlad. In this kitchen there was a characteristic tiled floor to a header, which was very outraged by the readers of the "anti-Soviet screen" (Valery to all names where the word "Soviet" appears, sticks "anti". - Approx. Aut.). Letters from indignant people began to come to the editorial office: "Why does your photographer shoot our favorite artists in the toilet?!" For most citizens, the tile was a sign of a public toilet. So here's the photo of Andrei, which you see in the album, I did for the cover of Mironov and Frenkel plates. It is now difficult to imagine, but they abandoned it, because Andrew on the handwriting sweatshirt in English. "
And what, all the shooting because of this was lit?!
Valery: "Fortunately, there was another frame."
It is because of this savory shot, Alexander Abdulov threatened to kill the carpenter. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
Let's talk about the photo in the style of Nu, at which, hiding behind only musical instruments and samovar, captured Viktor Ivanov, Mikhail Perceko, Leonid Yarmolnik and Alexander Abdulov. She was bound by a scandal in which for some reason only abdulov appeared.
Valery: "Well, because Sasha's scandal and arranged. Lena treated everything with humor. Moreover, he warned me: "Listen, we will meet Abdulov - do not be surprised if he starts to kill you." And told me this story. In those days, the guaranteed income artists provided the so-called "journey behind sausage". A group consisting of Abdulov, Yarmolnik, Yankovsky and, in my opinion, Zbruev, went to one of these trips. These tours in a monstrous manner coincided, firstly, with the premiere of the video of Alexander Serov, in which Irina Alferova was shot. She played his favorite singer woman. And secondly, with the publication of these ill-fated photos in the weekly "screen and scene".
The photos were originally done for Lena Koreneva, who left for permanent residence in America. There is still a frame where all artists stand with the same tools, but dressed. Boris Berman, who was then my close friend and worked as a "screen and scene" editorial office, I began to ask me these pictures for publication. It was uncomfortable to categorically, and I came up with an option on which, as it seemed to me, Boria would never agree. "You see," I said, "these personnel can only go a couple. If you take a "naked", then "dressed" print on the cover. " But Berman went to these conditions. After this incident, I understood why in the West all agreements are confirmed documented and described in very detailed. The "screen and scene" comes out, on the first cover format with a match box printed "dressed" photo. And on the fourth cover in the whole band there is a "naked", and even with the inscription: "They sold everything to subscribe to the Weekly" Screen and Scene ".
Valeria has a big family, son and five daughters. The picture is only her small part: (from left to right) Son Stepan, his children: Philip and Mark, and their mother Catherine. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
During the tour on Sasha, questions were sprinkled from the hall: "Is it true that you are so poor and all sold?", "Is it true that your wife has an affair with Serov and she left you?". Fans of the beautiful, talented actor Abdulov interested only this.
And here Sasha comes, we meet with him in the lobby of Lenkom. The first thing I hear is: "I'll kill you now!". Well, I could say: "Sash, kill, if you become easier from this." On this we, unfortunately, and diverged. But this is not the end of the story. Sasha turned fifty years, and about the anniversary Boris Berman and Ildar Genrendarev invited him to his program. I did not see her, but I naturally reported at once. Among other things, Boria asked: "Sasha, tell me, please, have you ever betrayed you?" What Abdulov replies: "Yes, I betrayed the carpenters." A few days later, I meet in the theater Bourmann and interested: "And what did you not tell Sasha a full version of this story? Do you know how interesting would your further conversation go? How did you miss such a journalistic opportunity? " I understand perfectly well that Sasha right in the studio would give Bore on the face. Berman mumbled: "Well, then we will talk" - and disappeared. In general, because of one photo I lost and Sasha, and Bore. "
Valery with his wife Svetlana. Now she helps her husband in his professional affairs. Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
You often photographed Vladimir Vysotsky. How many of the total survey was?
Valery: "Eight times. Funny, but once on some kind of speech, schoolchildren asked: "And Vysotsky - you filmed it from the TV?". "No, children, in life," I replied. They, obviously, not believing, were filled. Well, now Uncle will tell that he and Lermontov removed, and Pushkin. Another frequent question "And how do you agree with artists?", Which and you asked me at the beginning of the conversation. I do not negotiate - life is so folded. For example, one of the husbands of Alla Pugacheva - Sasha Stefanovich - was my friend of childhood. He brought somehow Alla to us for the country in Peredelkino. Where before this, every Saturday brought "nicrices" - mannequins. And then he comes with an unfamiliar girl, takes me aside and says: "So, the old man, no" nickens "never had." And introduces me to Alla. The first photo of Pugacheva was filmed on the same kitchen with a tile. "
And this kitchen, is she alive and healthy?
Valery: "Yes, my son Stepan now lives in this apartment. By the way, photos of Pugacheva and Boyarsky are not in vain standing in the album on one turn. I shot them in 1977, and the next year there were plastic bags, on one side of which Alla was printed, on the other - Misha. I'm kidding that in a civilized country would be already Bill Gates, at least a district scale. Because the inhabitants of the entire Soviet Union went with these packages, Milliona were circulation.
The shooting of Boyarsky is also associated with a stunning story! I have all stunning stories. (Laughs.) It was the cover of the "Anti-Soviet screen". Boyarsky then was on top of glory. In his adorable, the whole female part of my family also walked. When they found out that I would photograph Boyars myself, then asked for shooting. And my car was the brand "Niva". My ladies stuffed in the salon, and Misha simply left no place left. I had to accommodate him in the trunk. We went to the yacht club to shoot. In Kamennoostrovsky, a traffic cop slows me. I say: "Sorry, we rush, we have shooting Mikhail Boyarsky." Well, this name must work! The policeman sees that in the salon, one maiden faces. Then I lead him to the car, opening the trunk, and there sits, clasping the knees, Mikhail Boyarsky. He also played me. "Heady," says the policeman. That eyes on the forehead climbed. And in the head, apparently, thought flashed: "But who is this person, if he is of the Boyarsky in the trunk?!" In general, we were released. And in the photos of Misha in my shirt and with my guitar. And his guitar of the color of plywood, too, in the frame is a little visible. And on Alla Pugacheva Balahon from the glory of Zaitsev. "
"Matters crowded around Marina, they admired the goddess! And behind their backs of the root, Vysotsky jumps:" Hey, men, my baba! ". Photo: Personal archive Valeria Plotnikova.
Marina Vlad you were also filmed in the outfit from the glory of Zaitsev ...
Valery: "Yes. This shooting was all in the same kitchen, I just stuck on the floor white paper, so the tile is not visible. I and Marina, by the way, met even earlier than with Vysotsky. I remember the premiere of the film in the house of the movie "Plot for a small story", where he was playing Vlad. After the showing around her, "Matters" crowded, all folk and laureates surrounded it. Marina! Goddess! And the cocks of Volodya jumps such behind their spins, which was lower than the growth. Like, "Hey, men, my baba!". And they do not pay attention, current around Marina as TETEREV. I somehow admitted to me: "I feel old old woman. Everyone is suitable for me and they say that on my "sorcerer" grown. " She was filmed very young in the film. I then thought about myself: "It's good that I did not have time to say to her that I also grew up on the" sorcerer "and sobbed when the heroine of Marina died." Vlady tried to always walk in shoes at low go, so as not to injure the pride of Volodya. He repeated all the time: "we would be sprout." I wanted a "sprout" and, oddly enough, to be a member of the Union of Soviet writers. But never became. In the life of Vlady, it was very simple, like quailing: jeans, tires. And I wanted to remove her so feminine, what is called, "Show all our love" People's Artist of the entire Soviet Union, although without a title. Therefore, asked for help to fame. During the shooting, Marina tried four images. And glory I am insanely grateful for them. "
Julia Detettova