At the time of his move to Moscow, the theme of post-Soviet childhood was one of Bratkov’s central conceptual concerns. The artist’s children-related projects significantly varied as to themes and methods, but they all dealt with the social anomalies and ruptures of the socialist society, which was losing its “innocence” in a rapid transition to capitalist realism. Employing iconography of biblical subjects, Italian School , for instance, commented on the flow of religious pr

In this vein, the series Glue Sniffers (2000) and Juvenile Detention (2001) registered different manifestations of the failed state. The series was created in one of the detention centres in Kharkiv for troubled children (petty thieves, hooligans, drug addicts, prostitutes). Glue Sniffers. 2001. Series of 6 photographs. 90 × 90 cm

2001. Series of 9 photographs. C-print. Dimensions variable

Sick children were given balloons to blow up in order to strengthen their lungs. A stark reflection of the poverty of the time. Series of 6 photographs. C-print. 27 × 40 cm

2000. Series of 5 photographs. C-print. Dimensions variable Installation view: Canal de Isabel II, Madrid, Spain, 2009

At the turn of the 2000s, Bratkov was also conceptually engaged with post-Soviet social and professional types. Many of his portraits of such figures were made in Ukraine. The most striking among them were not those that reinforced age, gender, and social stereotypes of their respective professions, but those that challenged them. Series of 10 photographs. Nos. 1–9: C-print. 98 × 73 cm; no. 10: C-print. 98 ×128 cm

2001. Dyptich. C-print. 85 × 60 cm each

At the turn of the 2000s, Bratkov was also conceptually engaged with post-Soviet social and professional types. Many of his portraits of such figures were made in Ukraine. The most striking among them were not those that reinforced age, gender, and social stereotypes of their respective professions, but those that challenged them. The latter include, for instance, Army Girls and the retired Sailors . 2001. Series of 7 photographs. C-print. 85 × 60 cm; Video 3'21''

2001. Series of 4 photographs. C-print. 45 × 30 cm