“American Studies,” an exhibition at the Department’s Little Gallery includes 22 mid-scale photographs united by the theme of American Cultural Topography.  The photographer, Vadim Erent, immigrated to the United States from St. Petersburg, Russia—more than 30 years ago—but his photographs still express the newcomer’s wonder at the contradictions and commercialization of American culture right along with an appreciation of America’s dynamism and national esprit.  In art historic terms, his photographs owe something to Walker Evans’ vivid depictions of American trivia: shop windows, ad signs, assorted town and country bric-a-brac, while also following in the great tradition of American émigré photographers—Lisette Model, Jacob Riis, Edward Steichen, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and, of course, the legendary Robert Frank with his ground-breaking series, The Americans.  In this tradition, Erent’s cultural topographies, portraits and street photography are imbued with a kind of double take, registering the foreigner’s encounter with the United States in all its multiplicity while simultaneously providing an insider’s perspective, acquired over a decade of traveling the country.

Vadim’s photographs have been exhibited at Fluxco Gallery in Los Angeles in 2009 and in \art\space at the Anglo-American University in Prague in 2010.  His photograph, “The Real Thing, Mt. Rushmore,” was featured on the cover of the special issue of The Humanities Review, “American Identity” (Fall 2009, St. John’s University, NY) and selections of his works have appeared in GRASP: Culture and Aesthetics Quarterly and in VLAK: Contemporary Poetics & the Arts. More recently, two of Vadim’s “Czech” series “Kryry May Day” and “Prague Pictures” have appeared in the University of California eScholarship publication, Streetnotes: ethnography, poetry and the documentary experience… (UC Davis; click here).

Vadim is presently working on a series of his photographic impressions of Dushanbe, Tajikistan which will appear in Transitions On-Line later this year.