Boris Mikhalevkin

Mikhalevkin Boris Gavrilovich born 24 March 1930 in Leningrad. In October 1945, he entered the vocational school # 8, to be trained as an electrician. During his military service in 1953, he taught himself to play guitar. In 1958, he began working as an instrumentalist for the Leningrad-based concert establishments — a job that allowed him to travel all over the Soviet Union. He received a Zenit photo camera as a birthday present from his colleague musicians and started taking pictures. Later, upon his return to Leningrad, one of his earliest photographs was awarded the 1st place certificate at the All-Russian exhibition in Moscow. After his second child was born, Mikhalevkin quit his musical career. In 1965, he secured a job as an electrician at the Morphyspribor Central Research Institute. In 1966, he launched his first solo photography exhibition at the institute. He attended the meetings of the photo clubs at the Lensoveta, Vyborgsky and Gorky DKs. He joined the Zerkalo photo club in 1980, being already an accomplished artist. He was the Deputy Chair of the club’s Board and the author of the club’s anthem. From 1980 until 1988, he repeatedly visited Syktyvkar, Barnaul, Kiev, Daugavpils, Dnepropetrovsk, Vladivostok and Murmansk, representing Zerkalo with his solo exhibitions. In 1989, he quit Zerkalo. Until 1999, he worked as a CNC machines setter at Morphyspribor. Boris Mikhalevkin died in 2011.