Donbass Chocolate 1997

Curator: Immediately striking, isn't it? Arsen Savadov's "Donbass Chocolate" from 1997 presents a scene of stark contrasts. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: It's unsettling. The darkness, the soot-covered figures, and then... that central figure in white. There’s a brutal vulnerability that's hard to ignore. The performance aspect also grabs me, it is not straightforward documentation, right? Curator: Indeed. Savadov stages these scenarios, using photography as a medium to explore performance and social commentary. Consider the setting: the Donbass region, a hub of coal mining in Ukraine. It brings the politics of labor immediately to mind. Gelatin silver print intensifies the tonal gradations... Look how the chain visually echoes and contrasts with the ruffled skirt. Editor: Absolutely. The chains draped around the miners seem less about constraint, actually, than about ornamentation... And the stark black and white emphasizes the dichotomy of masculine and feminine, labor and leisure, perhaps, within a very specific political context. This wouldn't work as a color photograph, and would work even less as a painting. Why photography? Curator: I think the immediate connection we have with photography, as an apparent record of something "real", amplifies the unsettling nature you mentioned. It prompts us to question what's authentic, what's staged, and the societal pressures at play. You can almost smell the dust and sweat of labor and even consumption... The chains might signal entrapment and also pride. I feel like that makes this social realism, more precisely: socialist realism in the present-day. Editor: The title, "Donbass Chocolate," feels incredibly loaded now. The sweet, almost decadent, indulgence contrasted with the harsh realities of the miners' labor… who benefits, and who pays the price? You are absolutely right: there is no neutrality possible in such photography, and any interpretation we make cannot be "neutral". It is, at heart, activist photography and challenges so many societal and gender norms. Curator: Precisely, that tension between the alluring and the abrasive is the very core of the image. Thank you for bringing those thoughts, especially from a feminist perspective. Editor: A pleasure. Savadov has certainly given us much to unpack. Its raw energy has really challenged my reading.