The Hasselblad award was presented for the 20th time on Saturday 25 November 2000. The award winner, Boris Mikhailov, Charkov, Ukraine, received the award from Her Royal Highness Princess Lilian, at a ceremony at the Göteborg Opera House. The award sum was SEK 500,000. In conjunction with the ceremony an exhibit of the award winner’s work, Boris Mikhailov – 2000 Hasselblad award winner, opened at Göteborgs Konsthall.
The Foundation’s citation:
Boris Mikhailov is unquestionably the leading photographer with a “Soviet background” today. In recent years, his exhibits and books have attracted enormous international attention. At this point in his over thirty year long career, Boris Mikhailov continues to develop his great theme – his narrative of the fall of the Soviet utopia. Boris Mikhailov’s stance is critical; his work is consistently humanist in approach, with strong emotional elements and a sense of humor that audiences in both East and West have found moving. Despite working under extremely difficult circumstances, he has always succeeded in creating deeply engaging and exciting photographic art.
