Igor Gladkov

Igor Gladkov is a screenwriter, documentary photographer, and moving-image artist who has studied under the renowned playwright, actor, and theatre director Nikolay Kolyada. His achievements include a first place prize in the To Be or Not to Be photo contest organized by the British Council and his moving-images have been publicly screened in venues across Europe. 

In both photography and moving-images, Igor Gladkov practices presenting hyper-realism with theatrical connotations. Hyper-realism as in depicting the downtrodden and ordinary of society, such as the poverty-class and the working-class in their moments of isolation, or depictions of the elderly in complete solitude. These isolated circumstances, especially in the photography, reflect portraiture communicating sociological implications in provocative body language. For example, Igor Gladkov will capture a homeless person signaling an ‘L’ to the audience with his hands to indicate the connotation of ‘loser’, or another circumstance of an individual rolling his eyes as if he were a zombie and releasing smoke from his mouth from a cigarette as if being possessed. Most of these photographs were taken in Downtown, Los Angeles, particularly in the most neglected neighborhoods and districts. 

Often capturing ‘reality’, or in some circumstances the exaggeration of reality, Igor Gladkov presents portraits in both photography and moving-images conveying a documentary approach based in drama. These theatrical portraits contain well-executed compositions with deep contrast and intense detail, with lighting which seems planned rather than improvisational in most circumstances. Igor Gladkov wants to highlight the fragility of life, the value of humanity, even in downtrodden, poverty-stricken, and elderly states of existence. 

The most notable moving-image in Igor Gladkov’s portfolio would be Dove, an intimate portrait of an elderly man slowly rummaging through his home. Sequences of events includes the old man awakening from a nap from his low-budget couch to find something has smashed and broken his window. A dead dove, killed flying through the glass, is briefly mourned by the actor and collected into a shoebox. He places the improvised coffin for the dove on a sill near the window. With vintage vinyl music and fine wine, a portrait of himself and his late wife almost falls off the wall, perhaps signifying she is watching over him in regard to the finale. The elderly man goes back to his rickety couch, prepares to take a nap, only to find a dove has awakened him to keep him company. This touching narrative reveals our actions can have long-lasting effects beyond what we can initially comprehend. The supernatural connotations within the moving-image of Dove are subtle, there are no computer effects or overt suggestions of apparitional attributes. Igor Gladkov communicates a delicate narrative which reveals our perceptions of reality can have implications far more impactful than we may initially suspect.

These intimate psychological portraits based in hyper-realistic circumstances with implications far beyond first impressions portrays Igor Gladkov as a composer of visual art based in subtle study. His refined approach of bringing character to the surface through implied, but not revealed, supernaturality and exposing the underground elements of society in theatrical presentations conveys his screenwriter and dramatic sensibilities from his background.

Written by Michael Hanna, Editor of Point Pleasant Publishing

9/26/2026