Maria Snigirevskaya

Maria Snigirevskaya was born in 1967 in Leningrad to the family of the well-known artist Natalia Zhilina. Since childhood Maria has been interested in painting and was influenced by a wide circle of Leningrad “underground” figures: artists Richard Vasmi, Sholom Schwartz, Alexander Arefiev and Vladimir Shagin, poet Oleg Okhapkin, writer Nal Podolsky and photographers Boris Smelov, Boris Kudryakov and Leonid Bogdanov, who often visited Maria’s apartment.

Maria Snigirevskaya took interest in photography in 1979 thanks to her stepfather Boris Smelov, who had already been a recognized photographer by that time. Maria created her first significant photo work in 1982 at the age fifteen; from that moment onwards she turned off to painting and lost herself in photography. In 1991, when her works were displayed to the public for the first time ever, Maria Snigirevskaya began looking for her own inimitable and instantly recognizable style, which was largely formed by 1992. Since that time the artist’s oeuvre has become an integral part of the Saint Petersburg photographic scene, and her works have been regularly exhibited in Russia and abroad.