The opening of Sergey Bermeniev’ photography exhibition took place on the 28-th of February, 2008 in the 11th pavilion of Mosfilm film studio. The project includes 8 short-stories which masterly reflect inner life of Hollywood celebrities and world art elite. Devoid of any personal bias, the author’s camera candidly captures the most delicate shades of emotion.

The most exciting moment of the evening was the appearance and the short speach of the legendary Russian painter and caricaturist Boris Yefimovich Yefimov, aged 107! Boris Yefimov is one of the heroes of the «8 stars» project. In his speech at the opening Genrikh Borovik, famous journalist and writer, who was also portrayed by Sergey Bermeniev, pointed out that «While shooting Sergey Bermeniev creates such an atmosphere, that you relax and feel easy to be yourself — you can laugh or feel sad -everything depends on you. But sometimes Sergey throws in a joke and smiles or to the contrary, he leaves you with your feelings, only catching moments and taking pictures. And it clicks!» The deputy director of the Mosfilm film studio, Vladimir Ryasov also congratulated Sergey Bermeniv with the exhibition opening.

«Eight Stars» is a project depicting four characters of each hero, photographed by Sergey Bermeniev on black-and-white film. Looking at portraits of Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Sean Penn, Anthony Quinn, Sharon Stone, Maryl Streep, Boris Yefimov, you realize that these photographs have not been taken hastily or in a hurry. These are calm studio portraits, where perfect lighting emphasizes the tranquil atmosphere and drives you to think about the model’s real character, not a public image we used to see. The «8 Stars» project was planned by the author Sergey Bermeniev and his wife, curator of exhibition, Marina Bermenieva with the help of the Cultural Fund «National Portrait Gallery» and «ProLab-Centre», professional photo laboratory, to support the development of black-and-white photography as an important genre of contemporary fine art photography.

Friends and admirers — actors, writers, journalists, artists, singers, politicians and businessmen came to congratulate Sergey Bermeniev. A lot of kind words were said not only to Sergey Bermeniev, but also to the curator of the project Marina Bermenieva. The guests praised the curator for creating the ideal exposition of the portraits. Admiring the depth and atmosphere of these unique photographs, numerous guests had marked the highest level and technical perfection of printing and finishing. The reports from the exhibition opening were made by several TV channels, including NTV and RBK.

The «8 Stars» project is just a small portion of portraits made by Sergey Bermeniev. Several hundreds of works weren’t included in the exposition this time, as this was only the first part of the Project. The complete project will consist of 8 exhibitions, 8 photo-stories in each, and a final show exposing all 256 portraits. So we are all looking forward to see the next piece of this wonderful portraiture exhibited! The exhibition was held on the initiative of Nikolay Kanavin («Pro-Lab Centre») and Marina Bermenieva, the curator and wife of Sergey Bermeniev, and under the patronage of the Cultural Fund «National Portrait Gallery». The project was prepared and arranged by «ProLab-Centre», professional photographic lab, together with «Mosfilm» film studio, Kodak, MB-print, «2 tovarischa», DE I/DESILLUSIONIST art magazine, «Djokonda», Eitcom, furniture factory «8 March».

Photo by Dmitriy Baidrakov, Ekaterina Mezhekova, Natalia Udartseva.