Virtual exhibition · 18 works

Virtualexhibitionon NARVAL:Portrait of a cityByAleksandr Kljuchenkov

Published: August 26, 2026

Narva without the obligation to be a postcard: the city as presence, memory and a set of things that usually remain in the background.

Silhouette of a human figure on a pedestal near the water; power line pylons in the distance — 01 / 18

Aleksandr Kljuchenkov has lived in Narva all his life. Rather than catalogue its sights, he photographs his own way of seeing the city. In Portrait of a City, a facade takes no precedence over a window, a post, a tree, a person or an object found by chance.

Klyuchenkov calls “presence” the series' one constant. Sequence matters too: neighbouring frames create new meanings while leaving room for the viewer's own memories and associations.

Building demolition: an excavator stands among the brick rubble near the open facade — 02

A fur coat hangs on a tree branch at night — 03

Empty night intersection in front of the Narva Hotel — 04

Snowy industrial street of Krenholm in red light — 05

Dark silhouette of the Alexander Church during a snowfall — 06

Krenholm's hulls under the starry sky, seen from a dark passage — 07

Daisies in the yard and a man whose face is covered by a flash — 08

Everythingdeservesattention

“Pillars. Lattices. Doors. Windows. People. Packages. Bottles. Snowdrifts. Residential and non-residential buildings. Everything deserves attention."
Aleksandr Kljuchenkov - in conversation with NARVAL

Yard on Joala Street: Estonian flag, old houses and passerby — 09

Snowy park with blurry silhouettes of trees — 10

A man in dark glasses lies on the asphalt between the legs of a woman in red shoes — 11

A man in pink clothes stands by the bus; the upper part of the figure is hidden by shadow — 12

A woman in a black dress sits on the grassy bank of the river — 13

Dark wood against a pink wall with gray markings — 14

A figure with a bow near a brightly lit pillar in a night field — 15

A figure in red clothes sits on a checkered floor — 16

Overexposed figure of a woman sitting on a bench at night — 17

Grass and clover grow between white concrete breakwaters near the water — 18

Speaking to NARVAL, Klyuchenkov described the camera as a medium through which he shares his inner world. He rejected the “tyranny of beauty and positivity”: let sadness stay sad, fear remain frightening and boredom remain boring. This exhibition grants the photographs precisely that freedom.