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Valery Plotnikov is an outstanding master of photographic portraiture whose name has become synonymous with an entire cultural epoch. A Soviet and Russian photographer, as well as an author of literary prose, he captured the spirit and the faces of his time in his works.

Path to Art
He was born on October 20, 1943, in Barnaul, but in 1945 his family settled in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), which became his creative homeland. The future master's education was shaped by studies at School No. 222, an art school at the Academy of Arts, the Leningrad Art Institute, and finally, the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), which he graduated from in 1969. This was preceded by service in the Northern Fleet. It was after VGIK that he finally found his calling in photography, occasionally signing his works with the pseudonym "Valery Peterburgsky."

Master Portraitist of a 'Golden Age'
Plotnikov gained fame as a brilliant portraitist of the artistic world. His photographs graced the pages of leading Soviet magazines, and over his career, he held more than 50 personal exhibitions, starting in 1976 at the Leningrad House of Cinema.
His unique gallery features a whole constellation of legends: Lili Brik, Vladimir Vysotsky, Alla Pugacheva, Anastasia Vertinskaya, Boris Eifman, and many others. He is rightly called the "portraitist of a bygone era." Each frame is not just an image, but a story, often with an unexpected twist.

Stories Beyond the Frame
Working with the great Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, who, according to Plotnikov, "could not stand the glass eye of the camera," became a challenge. The photographer won him over by recounting how, during his time at VGIK, he had memorized the scripts of four of Antonioni's films from editing sheets. This knowledge was so impeccable that Plotnikov was even invited to act as an interpreter, despite not knowing Italian.

No less famous is the story of the shoot with Mikhail Boyarsky. Heading to meet the actor, Plotnikov took his daughters with him at their request. In the overcrowded Niva (where the cabin is connected to the trunk), there was no room for Boyarsky, so he humorously settled in the trunk. A traffic police officer noticed the violation. To the explanation, "We're on our way to shoot Misha Boyarsky!" the policeman just irritably replied, "What are you feeding me?" — until the photographer opened the trunk, from where the astonished law enforcer was cheerfully waved at by the "musketeer" himself.

Literary Work
In addition to photography, Valery Fyodorovich tried his hand at writing. In 2004, his short story "Vysotsky's Square" was published in the anthology "The Book of Magic Stories" (fairy tales for adults), proving the master's talent to be multifaceted.

Thus, through the lens of Valery Plotnikov, we see not just faces, but living characters and genuine emotions of an entire generation, preserved for history by his perceptive and ironic gaze.