Steelworkers

Among his most notable series is Steelworkers. “I like the sense of professional pride of these people,” the artist explained. “In the time of wild capitalism and aggressive entrepreneurship, I found their choice of an ordinary profession more sympathetic. Driven not by money but by duty, they were, to my mind, the heroes of the time.” Bratkov later explained his decline of interest in such portraits by noting that the epoch of “ordinary heroes” had disappeared in the more prosperous climate of the mid- to late 2000s.