Aleksander Sliussarev didn’t display his works at exhibitions too often. When asked about showing photographs at an exhibition he said that it didn’t give him anything but a chance to take a detached view of his own works. «They acquire some meaning that I will never be able to reach when showing them from my hands or some other way. That’s it».

Nonetheless, he thought that the ultimate result of your work is the wall you hang your photograph on, or at worst / least the folder you open from time to time, wearing white cotton gloves, and view the neatly passe-partout-ed picture (just because you don’t have too many walls to hang your pictures on).

A book of photographs, in Sliussarev’s opinion, gives an idea of the author but doesn’t allow any particular work influence the viewer. «Here is a concrete work hanging on the wall, it’s working, performing its function. Now and then somebody comes and asks what it is. I answer: it’s Tuoko Irtimaa, a Finnish photographer. This is it. The point is that the work is hanging and thus it’s working, but if it’s not hanging but is being kept closed in a book — then, consequently, what’s the use of it? There is a firmly established stereotype of perceiving a book: if you want to see Robert Frank, you should see a book. As a matter of fact, you don’t need to take a book… It turns out we take pleasure in a reproduction, not the photograph! And the difference between a reproduction and a photograph is fundamental».

«Many times I had known a photograph well enough (through its reproductions), and then I saw the original on the wall — and the impression was completely different. That’s just the point! A printed work starts to possess a different quality, and this quality is, alas, wrong. When we look at photographs in a book, they take on certain perception, some special significance. Should we try to imagine the same works on the wall — and they will lose up to 70% of their significance and will become just photographs, which they should be. There is photography for printing and there is photography for the wall. They are two different photographies, i.e. if we want to talk about photography, it’s photography, not printed photographs, not reproductions».

Despite such principled standpoint Aleksander Sliussarev didn’t negate the importance of the Internet for demonstrating photographs. Bloggers call him a «great Russian artist who created a perfect visual metaphor for a network blog». «Photographer Mukhin brought me to the live journal. First of all, it’s a diary and publication, when you began to take responsibility for what you’ve done. This is not an exhibition or an album. There is no size of the work as it is on television. This is LJ...»