"Titarenko finds in Venice elements that echo the universe of Saint Petersburg. In both cities water constitutes a reality that cannot be overlooked...The composition acquires a range of grays, whose nuances are deftly handled by the photographer. For gray is a sovereign quality in Titarenko’s art. And then there are those reflections of architecture on wet ground that create mirror effects and animate the composition — but without the photographer letting himself be dragged down by games of symmetry and geometric forms. Reflections create movement rather than contrast between shadow and light. In the Venice photographs, as in all of Titarenko’s work, his style is based not on contrasts, but on modulations, to employ a musical metaphor dear to the photographer."
Gabriel Bauret, curator, writer, and art historian
Translated from the French by Fiona Sze-Lorrain
From the essay "The Theater and Its Wings," as published in The City is a Novel (Damiani, 2015)