The three photogravures Boris Mikhailov created in BORCH Editions’ Copenhagen printmaking studio in 2005 reference his photography series Case History (1997–98), a body of work exploring the troubling circumstances of marginalized, homeless people in the Ukrainian city of Krakov after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mikhailov edited the original photographs by applying paint to their surfaces before transferring them onto photogravure plates, exploring the artistic possibilities of printmaking for the medium of photography.

Untitled showcases two of his most essential artistic strategies: the juxtaposition of two pictorial motifs, and manually applied colour.
Instead of dedicating a separate copper plate to a colour layer to be printed over the photogravure plate, as is usually the case in printmaking, Mikhailov makes use of photographic material that he has hand-painted. The gestural, painterly marks of bright colour enliven the image and are in stark contrast to the dour subject matter.
In the Soviet Union it was considered suspicious to take photographs in public; this makes Boris Mikhailov’s visual documentation of everyday life all the more remarkable. Since the 1960s he has captured the social reality of his native country Ukraine, resulting in an impressive photographic archive that spans generations, historical epochs and political regimes. Without revealing the location and personage depicted in his photogravure, Mikhailov offers a glimpse into the realities of everyday life beyond state-approved propaganda.