Photo Series: «Lyosha Belavin’s Postcards, ” 1988

Full Title: «Losha Belavin’s Postcards Sent to Friends and Acquaintances on the Eve of the New Year, 1988.»

So, here’s the story.

At the Sverdlovsk Art School, Shaburov had a friend named Losha Belavin. Shaburov was dismissed from the first year due to truancy and lack of discipline, but he was readmitted a year later. Consequently, Belavin graduated from the school earlier and enrolled at the Repin Institute in Leningrad.

And then, for New Year’s, Shaburov received a postcard from him—a card that struck him as a formal formality of a new, distant life where old friendships no longer mattered. Is that true or not?

Shaburov visited their mutual friends, collected the postcards sent by Belavin, and noticed they were almost all identical. Although there were subtle nuances. He then re-photographed them, resulting in a photo series that speaks either to the standardization of communication eroding spontaneity, to mass society suffocating individuality, or something along those lines.

The funniest part is that when Belavin came home for the holidays, Shaburov made him rewrite them all again. The previous postcards were on stationery that included last names and addresses, which felt superfluous.