Roman Sirotin, a native of Saint Petersburg, Russia is a multi-media artist drawn to beauty in many realms. A dancer, painter and photographer now living in Columbus, Ohio, Roman moved to America over a decade ago. In 2010, he began a creative collaboration with Columbus artist and dancer Jennifer Gordon. Together, they dance, paint and photograph dramatic images, many of abandoned buildings and stark spaces in the U.S. and abroad. “Abandoned places appeal to me due to the beauty of its decay and the atmosphere it gives off. They allow for moments of transcendence and solitude,” says Sirotin. “I am drawn to the bitter sweet and nostalgic ache of the ephemeral nature of passing time. Also, the world is better without people in it, the perfect city would be an abandoned city.
“I see something beautiful, and I take a photo of it, or I see something ugly, and I take a photo of it, depending on my mood.”
A self-taught photographer, Sirotin shoots in color and black and white using a “point and shoot” or cell phone camera. He edits his images on his cell phone as well. “Art is not something you learn, It’s something that’s already there that you can choose to experience,” he says. Sirotin’s choice of images range from a deteiorating motel room and state reformatory to a romantic aerial steeple view. In each, the colors are rich, his angles and perspectives arresting and unexpected. Line, structure and design override his not so obvious subjects.
“Beauty throughout time,” he says, “changes, morphs into something new, changes so slowly, it’s almost undetectable to the human eye. A room in an abandoned building: the paint peels, the light seeps in, the mood changes the atmosphere and creates a beautiful moment, one perhaps that will go unseen for all time.”
Roman Sirotin’s photographs were included in the April and June issues of F-stop Magazine online. Visit www.romansirotin.com for further viewing of his work.
–Elizabeth Meade Howard, Art Editor
Featured image: Inverse Mandala at Gates of Hell, Ohio, 2013
Follow us!
Share this post with your friends.
