Lyudmila Tabolina

Lyudmila Sergeevna Tabolina born 2 June 1941 in Vyshny Volochyok, Kalinin (Tver) region. After graduation from high school, worked as file clerk and as knitter at a knitting factory. In 1961, enrolled at the Department of Chemistry of the Leningrad Technological Institute, where she became interested in photography. In 1964, she joined the Gorky DK photo club (named Lubitel in the early 70s). In 1967, she graduated with a degree in chemistry technology. She remained at the institute as researcher and defended her PhD thesis in 1980. From 1980 on, she began to frequent Zerkalo club meetings at the Karl Marx DK. In 1981, she finally quit the Lubitel photo club. In 1984, together with Yevgeny Raskopov, she travelled to Dagestan; the trip resulted in a photo series on everyday life of the Dagestani. In the spring of 1985, after submission of a “creative report”, she was admitted as club member. In 1990, she lost interest in photography, ceased to attend club meetings, and sold or gave away her equipment. In the spring of 1991, at the 1st Soviet-American exhibition, entitled Fotografiruyut zhenschiny (Women’s Photography), she met Georgy Kolosov, who encouraged her to resume her career in photography. In the 1990s and 2000s, she created a large number of pictorial series taken with a camera with a monocular lens, made and given to her by G. Kolosov. Each of the series was displayed as a separate exhibition.

Lyudmila Tabolina took part in over a hundred group exhibitions and had over 40 personal exhibitions. Her works are represented in the collections of such museums and galleries as The State Russian Museum, The State Museum of the History of Saint-Petersburg, Museum of the History of Photography (Saint-Petersburg), Yaroslavl Art Museum, Nabokov Museum (Saint-Petersburg), Moscow House of Photography, Museum of Organic Culture (Kolomna), Metenkov Museum of Photography (Yekaterinburg), F. M. Dostoevsky Literary Memorial Museum (Saint-Petersburg), Borey Art Center etc.