A hero of democracy and anti-corruption, Alexei Navalny’s legacy continues with documentation of his life by Evgeny Feldman, himself under threat from Russia.
LYN DI CIERO
♦ Petr Kuzmin, official Australian representative of the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation. Photo Lyn DiCiero.
Alexei Navalny, political prisoner and passionate advo-cate of truth and democracy for Russia, was harassed, poisoned and incarcerated, ultimately losing his life in a prison in Siberia in 2024. Describing Russia’s ruling party as one of crooks and thieves, he founded the Anti-Corruption Foundation in 2011, was recognised as a prisoner of conscience and among numerous accolades, was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work in human rights. For a dozen years, photo journalist Evgeny Feldman documented Navalny’s trajectory – from the jubilation of popular public rallies, to the desperation of imprisonment as well as his near death experience of being poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok, attributed to Russian agents as retribution for his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. At Mossenson Galleries in Subiaco, This is Navalny, consisting of some 45 photographs by Feldman, honours Navalny’s legacy of courage, resistance and his unyielding pursuit of truth, freedom and democracy for Russia.
In a video shown at the opening of the exhibition, Feldman, now based in Latvia and under threat of criminal procedures in Russia for the perceived political dam-age caused to the current regime by his photographs including those in the exhibition, said publicly showing the images elsewhere in the world was one of the few things he could do to keep Navalny’s legacy alive. “He was able to put all this pressure onto the government, becoming a symbol of hope for all Russians to believe in democracy and freedom, even now, two years after he was murdered in prison.”
Over many years of covering Navalny, Feldman was also commissioned to document him for a year during his presidential campaign under an unusual agreement of complete freedom. “There were no restrictions in my access to him and his campaign would not even see my pictures before they were published,” said Feldman. “I think this is a completely unique agreement in the history of photography, and the history of politics. No same politician would ever come to such terms with an independent photographer and still Navalny did.”
Speaking at the opening, Melbourne-based Petr Kuz-min, Australia’s official representative of the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, an organisation who continue Navalny’s work in uncovering corruption in Russia, said aspiring opposition politicians in Russia like Navalny had no access to general media such as TV or Russian-based publications and relied on images to relate their political message and who they were. “The images you see in the exhibition really demonstrate the multifaceted person that he was. You see his public image, the way he appeared at various rallies – powerful images of him addressing huge crowds of people and those crowds were unprecedented for Russia not just in Moscow, which is the usual port of activity, but all around Russia. You also see very private moments the way his family is interacting with him, the way he was with his wife, Yulia and with his kids. And very im-portantly, you also see lots of faces of ordinary people, who started to believe in the message of the promise of a democratic Russia.”
Kuzmin says whenever he was in Russia he visited Navalny’s office, catching him in just once and was called in to meet with him. “He was so open, so genuine and very engaging,” he says. “It kind of confirmed I was right in following him, and my commitment after that doubled.”
He says when Navalny died it was a huge blow. “For three days I didn’t eat anything. I was in depression, I guess. I stayed in bed most of the time. After that I sprung into actually trying to do however much I could. There was immediate interest. I was giving interviews and we set up an improvised memorial on the central bridge in Melbourne.”
Kuzmin says Navalny had appeared in court just three days earlier via video link. “He was very positive and was making jokes. His parents came for a visit around that same time. There was no indication that he was expecting anything. Yes, he was aware of that possibili-ty. It seems it could have happened at any point.”
This is Navalny opened on the second anniversary of Navalny’s death and continues at Mossenson Galleries until 28 March. Sat 11 am-4pm and by appointment: phone 0413803998.
♦ Resisting by Evgeny Feldman in This is Navalny at Mossenson Galleries.
♦ Preparation, (detail) by Evgeny Feldman.