"PHOTO DOCUMENTS"
Photography
In the small hall

                                             I got to know Pti-Boris! He’s a photographer! He loves St Pete so much!
                                                                                                                     Mitya Shagin, 1975
We would like to invite you to the photo show ABOUT Boris Smelov. It’s not to spite somebody, but to “fill up a canvas”, to make the digestion of material easier.
Boris Smelov (Petit-Boris) was born on March 13, 1951 in Leningrad. Till 1961 he lived on Vasilievsky Island and attended drawing classes. He went to mathematical school. When he was 10, he fell for photography.  His first camera was “Lyubitel”. He learnt to make photos from D.Ritov, in the House of Pioneers. In 1968 in the photo club at Vyborgsky Palace of Culture he got to know Boris Kudryakov (Grand-Boris), who introduced him to K.Kuzminsky’s circle. In 1970-1972 studied at the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, in 1972-1973 at the journalist’s faculty of Leningrad University. At the end of 1974 participated in the first show of independent photography “Under the Parachute” at Kuzminsky’s. There were exhibited 27 photos by Smelov. In 1977 he was awarded the Gold medal for a reporting photo series at 11th International Photo Art Salon in Bucharest.
Boris Smelov met an absurd and tragic death on Vasilievsky Island on January 18, 1998.
                                                                                                     Taken from V.Valran’s article