Sasha Gusov: Collecting the World

Collecting the World collects twenty-five years of Sasha Gusov’s street photography, exploring the morals, customs and manners of people across the world. ‘Whatever Sasha focuses his lens on reveals both the humour and pathos of our human condition. He is a master of composition, and somehow his light touch enables us to come face to face with the tragedy of our complicity in historical repetition.’ - Gillian Anderson OBE, actor and winner of two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards Sasha Gusov (b.1960) is a Russia-born, UK-based photographer, fascinated by the morals, customs and manners of people across the world.

Alongside his commercial work for influential clients including Vogue, Christie’s and Sotheby’s, Gusov is an avid street photographer, and his keen eye finds the differences, commonalities, comedy and gravity in people and places. Collecting the World presents his photographs taken over twenty-five years in a picture selection curated by editor Amanda Renshaw. An essay by academic and photographer Peter Hamilton sheds light on Gusov’s life as a photographer in Russia and London and his unique visual language.

In Collecting the World Gusov juxtaposes toreadors outside a bullring in Spain with synchronised swimmers in Belarus; a sumo wrestler riding a bicycle with a pilot sitting with his bike in front of an aircraft; and Jude Law in jeans and a ballerina from the Bolshoi Ballet in costume puffing on cigarettes. His message is clear: people are people all over the world.