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ANNOTATIONS
The series is based on the simple fact that one image is often not enough to express a complex idea.
Multiple photo illustrations appeared in American and European magazines in the late 1920’s. The success of this approach led to the Golden Age of magazine photojournalism in the 1950-1970’s when pages and pages of documentary photographs were sparsely illustrated with short textual notes.
Maslov’s work, however, belongs to a completely different realm of combined imaging. His Annotations are more psychological insight than document. Deeply rooted in reality they are strangely enigmatic.
The artist is obviously concerned with social themes and the mysteries of growing up. Political undertones can be discovered in some of the images. But these themes are neither dominant, nor critical. The smaller image in each pair is noticed and examined just a second after the mental absorption of the larger one. In most cases this footnote photo redirects the first impression considerably, enhancing it with an important layer, forming a new unity. And in that I see the Annotations’ strength and beauty.
Claude Paar