Berlin! Greasy backyards in working-class Friedrichshain next to fancy Potsdamer Platz and Norman Foster's famous Reichstagkuppel. Olga Pauli shows the booming metropolis, but in a new form. She does not employ well-known stereotypes, but turns nuances into a new and aesthetic form of art.

"The camera is an instrument of passive conquest. I don't want to simply snap architecture from an interesting perspective – I want to make experiments with colors and texture," says Pauli. "There are only color pictures in this exhibition. Color and black-and-white are completely different languages. Black and white – that's graphics, especially light and shadow, a maximum of contrast, silhouettes. Color photography – that's painting."

In the exhibition, there are series of Berlin working-class blocks and suburban middle-class apartments. But the motifs are not the most interesting part of it. The edges seem to swim; they spin together and disappear into each other. It makes the photographs look three-dimensional.

The effect is achieved without technical manipulation. She does not change her photographs, either by computer or in the developing process, but only experiments with viewpoints and light. Perhaps this is why Pauli manages to capture the atmosphere of known objects. Apartments, houses, offices, even the Reichstagskuppel become both unique and universal. Everyone who is familiar with the actual places will recognize them – but at the same time they could be anywhere.

The exhibition runs until Mar. 3

GALERIA "NA PESCHANOI"
23 Nowopeschanaya Ul.
Metro: Sokol
Tel: 943-5131
Hours: Wed. to Fri. 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Sat. and Sun. 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Cover: 2-5 rubles