Private Moon Project By Leonid Tishkov And Boris Bendikov

The concept of a “private moon” and the eerie light of the photographic images were immediately compelling to me and they continue to evoke a longing inside of me which is born of actual experience in my life as well as the sensate memory of the great stories of my childhood., read to me by my father. We all are bathed under the moons light and she affects us all and all things around us. Yet our contemplation, our longing and questing, ultimately leaves us alone; alone with our private moon.
In an act of ‘lune d’apprentissage’ Marcus took a group of his students on a night shoot and together they made Te marama mai runga i a Rangitoto…and so the Private Moon exhibition moves on its inexorable, elliptical journey around the globe and is photographed in each place.
Finally to say, the discourse around the public and private worlds, which we all co-inhabit, underscores the primary trajectory of the Private Moon project. Yet the easily infected fragile membrane which separates these two worlds becomes most poignant when remembered in the context of the creation of this work. This is clearly signified in the circumstances outlined above in the Soviet Union, circumstances which surrounded the precarious emergence of the phenomenal artistic oeuvre of Leonid Tishkov.