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.

The human figure in Untitled appears to be free-floating in an undefined blue space; the fall of hair and the cast shadows contribute to the image’s surreal atmosphere and the overriding feeling of spatial disorientation. The experimental approach and visual imperfections in the photographic source material contribute to the image’s dreamlike, almost surreal atmosphere.
Sourced from his own archives of previous decades, Mikhailov’s 2005 photogravures are intertwined with his practice as a photographer; the image which forms the material for this photogravure was created using the photographic printing technique cyanotype. Mikhailov translates this source image into photogravure without erasing the original image’s technical imperfections, stains and traces, contrasting its ephemeral playfulness and experimental freedom with the permanence and technical perfection of a classic intaglio printing technique.