creative idea
Publisher Dmitry Biryukov and his wife Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya were invited to the TEFI award ceremony in 1998. The woman’s biography, starting from this memorable day, has undergone significant changes. The ceremony was attended by many star artists, shining with their luxurious outfits.
Looking at celebrities, Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya noted that there is a certain similarity between some of them and the characters in famous paintings. Her creative idea was supported by her husband.
Career and creativity
In her youth, Katya worked on television as a translator of foreign programs into Russian. Then I started doing literary translations from English and French. She worked on the works of John Le Carré and others, and translated more than a dozen books.
In 1985, the USSR State Television and Radio Committee sent Rozhdestvenskaya on a business trip to India. On the banks of the Ganges, Ekaterina made reports for the programs “International Panorama” and “Time”. Then came a break from work dedicated to raising children.
The turning point for Rozhdestvenskaya’s biography was 1998: she, not being a professional, took up photography. At the TEFI award ceremony, the keen eye of a woman noticed that celebrities in luxurious outfits looked like the heroes of paintings by artists of the past. The idea arose to recreate these paintings using a camera. This is how the “Private Collection” project appeared, which the author called “a game based on art.” Photos of this series began in 2000 and now continue to be published by the magazine “Caravan of Stories”.
In addition to the “Private Collection”, Rozhdestvenskaya created such photo projects as “Kinfolk”, “Fairy Tales”, “Vintage”, “Associations”, “Classics”, “Still Lifes” and others. In the filming, the woman involved more than 3,000 models: actors, singers, athletes, public and political figures, journalists, and TV presenters.
In 2001, the newspaper “Seven Days” began publishing the series “The Most Beautiful People in the World.” Ekaterina participated in this project.
An exhibition of works from the “Private Collection” series was first held in 2002 at the Moscow House of Photography. Personal exhibitions of Rozhdestvenskaya’s works are visited by galleries in Russian cities, near and far abroad.
On the eve of her 50th anniversary, in 2006, Ekaterina Robertovna was awarded the Olympia Prize in the Art Style category for her original style in art. In 2009, Rozhdestvenskaya was elected an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
In 2011, Ekaterina became a fashion designer. Her line of photographic clothing, ROB-ART by Katya Rozhdestvenskaya, named after her father, was an experiment, but became popular. Dresses and tunics with the author's print (photos from the author's personal archive) were first demonstrated in 2011.
The “Clothes according to your mood” collection attracted attention at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia in Moscow in 2012. Currently, “ROB-ART by Katya Rozhdestvenskaya” is presented in TSUM. Along with clothing, the brand presents home textiles and a line of scarves.
In 2012, Rozhdestvenskaya took over the post of editor-in-chief of 7 Days magazine. On July 28, 2012, President V.V. Putin awarded Catherine the Order of Friendship “for great services in the development of national culture and art, many years of fruitful activity.”
Since 2006, Rozhdestvenskaya has participated in several films: 2006 – “Carnival Night-2, or 50 Years Later” (episode), 2008-2009 – “The Crown of the Russian Empire, or the Elusive Again” (documentary), 2012 – “ Secrets of Soviet cinema. Elusive Avengers" (documentary).
Since 2020, Rozhdestvenskaya’s books began to be published:
- “Once upon a time, they lived and ate and drank. Family Stories" (2015) - a culinary encyclopedia about traditional and ancient family recipes, birthday menus, famous guests (, and others), also contains sketches from life.
- “My random countries. About travels and incidents! (2016) - about the author’s life in India, France, Spain, Finland. At the presentation of the book, the author appeared in an oriental style dress with Indian flatbreads prepared with her own hands.
- “Adult Games” (2016) – in the work, the author revealed the secrets associated with working with the stars on the “Private Collection” project.
- “The Yard on Povarskaya” (2016) - a book about the writer’s childhood home on the street. Vorovsky, 52, about his life and amazing inhabitants.
- “Mirror” (2017), “Girl from the Patriarch’s” (2018) - memories of childhood and family.
- "Private collection. How the photo project was created" (2018) - a work about the work on the main photo project.
"Private collection"
Photographer Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya has a unique business card. This is her first and most voluminous project, called “Private Collection”. The main idea was to recreate paintings painted by great artists of the past.
Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya, whose “Private Collection” was a great success, invited famous Russian stars of theater and TV, cinema and science, as well as sports, to become the heroes of the filming. Since 2000, Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya submits her works every month for publication in the Caravan of Stories magazine. Old paintings in this project sound new, and the scenery and makeup help them in this. At the end of 2001, the “Private Collection” collected photographs of more than two hundred famous people in the country and far beyond its borders.
As Ekaterina herself admitted, she based her first project on fantasy in the field of great works of art. The precision of makeup, costumes and scenery brought the works of the painters to life. An important factor in the success of the works was the charm of the stars, who shocked with their similarity to the originals and made us look at history with a bit of irony. Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya, whose work made it possible to create complex and multifaceted images, revealed her contemporaries by drawing an analogy with personalities from the past. Elena Obraztsova and Vladimir Spivakov, and Lyubov Kazarnovskaya, Anatoly Karpov and Valentin Yudashkin, Joseph Kobzon and many other people known to us took part in this project.
Ekaterina Robertovna Rozhdestvenskaya began photographing celebrity personalities in a way that no one had ever done before. She found the necessary props by visiting antique stores. Sometimes necessary things were bought abroad. The photographic portraits taken by the author are rich, bright and spectacular. They are made in the format of large paintings. The works are printed on canvas. The top layer is varnish.
Writing career
After graduating from college, she served on television and radio. Translated foreign programs into her native language. After that, she worked on translations of fiction. She worked on novels by John le Carré, J. Steinbeck, Somerset Maugham, Sidney Sheldon and others.
Since the late 90s, Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya has been actively involved in photography. Her works have been shown and are still periodically published in the glossy publication “Caravan of Stories.” In a couple of years, the woman filmed more than two hundred people. These were popular Russian presenters, actors, journalists and even politicians. At the moment, Ekaterina Robertovna is the author and performer of more than 30 amazing photo projects, published in addition to the “Caravan of Stories” in the monthly magazine “Caravan of Stories. Collection".
Relatives
Watching is a favorite pastime of many people. Of particular interest are those photographs that depict several generations of the family.
Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya’s project “Kinfolk” aroused great interest among viewers. She dressed the Menshovs in costumes that were worn at the beginning of the twentieth century. The hippie image suited Presnyakov perfectly. Zapashnye was captured by the photographer in the arena of the Colosseum of Ancient Rome in the image of gladiators taming tigers. Vladislav Tretiak's family looks great in French costumes from the early eighteenth century. There is a work in the “Kinfolk” project that depicts Artemy Troitsky with his wife, son and two daughters in the image of the Adams family. The photo represents a counterbalance to the dreary everyday life of modern society.
In all these works there is a share of self-irony, as well as pride in one’s family, combined with respect for traditions. For many very busy members of the clans photographed by the author, participation in the project became an opportunity to be close to their loved ones, and to do this in an unusual environment.
Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya published a very personal letter
The daughter of the famous poet Robert Rozhdestvensky published a heartfelt post about her mother on her page on the social network.
Many of us know the works of Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya: the photographer photographs stars as characters in paintings by famous artists.
This talented woman's post is full of love for her mother. Memories, photos, relationships between parents... We can look into another life: Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya gave us the opportunity to plunge into the atmosphere of her family.
“Happy, beloved, loved by all of us, mom lived a real, amazing and long life. When you are not ashamed of anything! And I never went through the episodes with the words “if only I…” There were no “ifs” at all! Marry - to our only love, our father, Robert Rozhdestvensky! And his muse, and his beloved friend, so beloved that everything around was electrified when they were nearby, and they were always nearby. And my sister and I, with this love, warmed ourselves, luxuriated, thought, this should be the case with everyone, including with us...
She was a father's nurse, a nurse, and with her amazing love she pulled out of all the diagnoses. And he wrote poems to her, again and again, dedicating only to her, his Alena. And when he left, she began to go to his grave every day, every day, in any weather, to see how he was doing... I was afraid for her then, these daily trips to the cemetery were very inevitable for several years.
She waited for her grandchildren, they were all loved in different ways, but passionately and selflessly, she could only criticize herself, she didn’t allow anyone else, she could gnaw their throats out for them! And they, these guys, like little puppies, twirled around her, looked into her eyes, kissed her gray head, waited for what she would say, who she would smile at. Leshka, the eldest, arranged concerts for her with a friend, the two of them came to the dacha and sang their father’s songs. Only for her.
Mitka gave her a great-granddaughter, with whom the whole family fell in love, and this also prolonged her mother’s life. Well, Danka, the youngest, was just waiting for lessons to end so he could go to Lyalka. That's what he called her - Lyalek. Everyone warmed themselves around her. And warmed up.
Now she has gone to her father. Now they are together. And this is the only thing that reconciles me with this black hole in my heart. And all these tears of mine that cannot be held back, funeral troubles, pills in handfuls so as not to fall or, on the contrary, to fall, hated black clothes will end someday, right? But for now the emptiness is such that it cannot be conveyed or described in any words - just yesterday, she was sitting in her chair, and Leshka wanted to come to her, no, tomorrow, mom said, I’m not very good today ... "
photo facebook.com/erojdestvenska
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Men and women
The next project of the famous author is very popular among viewers. This is a series of photographs “Men and Women”. Star actors from both Russian and foreign show business wanted to participate in the project, because it is very tempting to transform for a while, appearing before the audience in a completely different guise, and then find yourself again.
As part of this project, Nikolai Baskov, as well as Sergei Makovetsky and Sergei Zverev, were involved in the roles of women. The male images were created by Irina Allegrova, Tina Kandelaki and Tamara Gverdtsiteli.
Film stars
Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya dedicated her new project to the movie stars of past decades. She called him “Film Stars”. The collection of Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya includes images of great actresses who shone in the thirties-sixties of the twentieth century. Among them are Lyubov Orlova and Greta Garbo, Vera Kholodnaya and Audrey Hepburn, as well as Ada Gardner and Marlene Dietrich. These languid blondes, spectacular brunettes, and fatal red-haired beauties were objects to be imitated. Their style, makeup and hairstyles were copied by numerous fans.
In the “Film Stars” project, famous Russian women “tried on” the images of movie stars of the past. Among them are Valeria and Elizaveta Boyarsky, as well as Kristina Orbakaite and Olga Drozdova, and others. The works, done in black and white, allow viewers to see celebrities from very unusual angles. At the same time, they arouse the viewer’s interest in classical art, as well as in the history of costume and fashion.
Vintage
This project by the famous photographer allows all viewers to plunge into the half-forgotten world of fashion for mothers and grandmothers. While admiring the magnificent works, each of us will take a trip to the recent past, looking at the models of skirts, coats and dresses, as well as the hairstyles of the fashion models depicted on the canvases. The fashion trends of the forties and eighties of the last century pass before the viewer’s eyes. The photographs reflect things that women pass on from generation to generation, carefully taken out of ancient chests and stored, despite the transience of time.
Fruitful work and personal life
Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya shoots her photos for the cover of a magazine called “Caravan of Stories”, as well as for the popular newspaper “Seven Days”. Today her collection contains more than three thousand works. At the same time, Ekaterina Robertovna is the author of thirty photographic projects, which were demonstrated at seventy-five exhibitions in Russia and neighboring countries.
In 2005, the Academy of Entrepreneurship and Business of the Russian Federation awarded her the title of laureate of the National Award for Women's Achievement "Olympus". In 2009, Ekaterina was elected an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
Rozhdestvenskaya is married. The family has three sons. The eldest is Alexey, he was born in 1986. The middle son is Dmitry (b. 1989). The youngest is Danila, he was born in 2001. Ekaterina’s husband, Dmitry Vladimirovich Biryukov, is the first deputy general director of the Russian holding Gazprom-Media and the president of the Seven Days Publishing House CJSC.
Children of Rozhdestvenskaya Ekaterina Robertovna
The life of the famous writer and photographer is not limited only to art; in addition, Catherine was able to realize herself as a mother of many children. The woman has three sons: Alexey, Dmitry and Danila.
The first son was born in August 1986 in India. It was during this period of time that Catherine and her husband left for South Asia, where Dmitry created reports for such television programs as “International Panorama” and “Time”. When Ekaterina was pregnant for the first time, medical staff feared that she might not carry the baby to term and would lose the child.
Now Alexey is 31 years old, he is an economist by training and, like his mother, he grew up to be a creative person. In addition, he is interested in music and e-sports.
Ekaterina Robertovna’s middle son is currently 28 years old. He is a professional karter. At the moment I have achieved good results in this sport. The young man won competitions more than once. Not long ago our heroine married her son. His chosen one was a girl named Ksenia.
Ekaterina Robertovna’s youngest son is now 17 years old. This year the young man graduates from school. In addition, he is interested in studying physics, loves to play chess and draws well.
The writer gave birth to Danila when she was 44 years old. Then Alexey and Dmitry could not believe for a long time that they would have another brother. Despite the fact that the last birth was late, it turned out to be the easiest for the woman. After the birth of her child, Ekaterina quickly got into shape and continued working on projects.
