Out Of The Blue

Using a blue inflatable ring as a playful framing device, photographer Kirill Golovchenko captures seaside holiday scenes in his home country of Ukraine. The resulting series of voyeuristic pictures is at once confronting, unselfconscious, and humorous, full of skimpy suits, flabby protagonists, sandy discomfort, and sunburnt skin.

The blue ring initiates a kind of “hide-and-seek” between the photographer and his subjects, which in turn takes viewing the images to another level, one between staged and documented reality. Golovchenko highlights the pastime of watching and being watched at the beach. The series was awarded the European Photo Exhibition Award.