Biography - Rifhat Yakupov

About photo artist

Honored Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan, member of the Union of Journalists of Tatarstan, member of the Union of Photographers of Russia, member of the Union of Theater Workers of Russia.

Rifhat Yakupov was born in Izhevsk on July 29, 1944. In 1967 he graduated from the department of journalism at Kazan University. He is a participant and winner of many photo exhibitions around the world.

The main theme of the photographer's work is the life of the people. As part of ethnographic expeditions, he filmed various ethnic groups of the Tatars - Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian, Polish, Kryashen, Mishar, as well as the indigenous people of Crimea - Crimean Tatars.

Between 1968 and 1986, he worked as a photojournalist in youth newspapers and the magazine "Azat Khatyn".

Since 1986, he was a photographer of the theater named after Kamala.

In 1989, at the invitation of the Swedish Union of Photographers, he conducted master classes in photography schools in Stockholm and Gothenburg.

In 1990, at the invitation of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the city of Tampere (Finland), Rifhat Yakupov participated in the international photo project "Backlight" (USA), "America meets the USSR”, where America was represented by Denny Lyon (photographer of the world-famous agency "Magnum"), and the Soviet Union – by Rifhat Yakupov.

In 1991, at the invitation of the Swedish Union of Photographers, the artist presented two personal exhibitions - "The Leaving Village" (Stockholm Ethnographic Museum) and "Hello, Tbiliso" (Private gallery "MIRRA", Stockholm).

In 1996, commissioned by the UN mission in Crimea, he filmed reports on the life of the deported peoples of Crimea and national groups - Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Armenians, Germans, Greeks.

In 2002 he was awarded with the prize of the Union of Journalists of Tatarstan.

In 2003 he became a laureate of Sirazeev Theater Prize.

From 2008 to the present day, Rifhat Yakupov has been working as a photographer covering all the events of the Festival movement "Constellation-Yoldyzlyk", on the website of which there are about 100,000 photographs. The photographer’s works are used by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, as well as the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan.

From 2008 to 2016, in order to study Tatar folklore and at the invitation of the republican center for the development of traditional culture, Rifhat Yakupov participated in creative expeditions to the areas of compact residence of Tatars in the Russian Federation.

In the same years, he took part in the work of the All-Russian festival "Tugerek uen" as a photographer.

Photo albums

• 1978 "Sabantuy" (publishing house "Taknigoizdat").
• 1996 "Tatar art of Crimea" (published by the Institute of Turkic Studies of the Free University of Berlin).
• 1996 "The Theater named after Kamala "(published by The Theater named after Kamala).
• 2000 "You are my winged horse" (publishing house "Rukhiyat", Kazan).
• 2000 "Aznakay tamchilary" (publishing house "Rukhiyat", Kazan).
• 2001 "Artist Akhsan Fatkhutdinov" (publishing house "Rukhiyat", Kazan).
• 2002 "Philosopher's stone" (publishing house "Kamsky Publishing House", Naberezhnye Chelny).
• 2003 Design of the book of poems by poetess Marie Lundqvist (publishing house "Bonniers", Stockholm).
• 2005 Ethnographic atlas of Volga Tatars (publishing house "Design and cartography", Moscow).
• 2005 "Thousand-faced Kazan" (publication of the magazine "Tatarstan", Kazan).
• 2005 "The Theater named after Kamal" (published by The Theater named after Kamal).
• 2009 "Tatarstan is our common home" (publication of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan).
• 2014 Author's photo album "Sabantuy" (published by Mardzhani Foundation, Moscow).
• Tatiana Kolodzey’s private collection of modern art, Moscow – New York.
• Rustam Suleymanov’s collection of paintings, the Mardzhani Fund, Moscow – Yalta.

Personal exhibitions

1989 - Master classes in photography schools in Stockholm and Gothenburg with an exposition of his own works in the Union of Photographers of Sweden.

• 1990 - "Kurai", project "West meets East", Tampere, Finland.
• 1991- "From the life of Tatars" – The Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm, Sweden.
• 1991- "Hello, Tbiliso!", gallery "MIRRA", Stockholm, Sweden.
• 1994 - "The difficult return", Lublin, Poland, NN Theatre.
• 1995 - "Crimea. Losses and gains", Berlin, Germany, city library, Turkish embassy in Germany.
• 1997 - "The Return", Pertschach-am-Wörthersee, Austria, 42 Congress of the FUEN.
• 1998 - "Sketches of Crimea", Istanbul, Turkey, the Crimean Tatar Association of Turkey.
• 2005 - "1000 years of Kazan", Helsinki, Finland, publishing house "Saanomat".
• 2011- "Tatarlar", Gallery of contemporary art, Kazan.
• 2013- "Tatars", Art gallery of the National museum, Ufa.
• 2013- "Chronicle of the Return" National art gallery "KHAZINE", Kazan.
• 2014- "Chronicle of the Return", Museum of the Peoples of the East, Moscow.
• 2014— “Rifhat Yakupov - Silk Road Photographer,” at the invitation of Al Arabi Magazine within the international conference on the history of the Silk Road, Kuwait.
• 2015- "Tatars", at the invitation of the Association "Preservation and Development of the Culture of Astrakhan Tatars", Astrakhan.