God decides how long your life
is, but you decide how wide it is.
"He did not think of himself as a tourist; he was a traveler. The difference is partly one of time, he would explain. Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belongingno more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, during periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, preciselywhere it was he had felt most at home."
Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
Mikhail "Misha" Evstafiev (b. 1963 in Moscow) has divided his life between art and hardcore history.
Since childhood, inspired by the work of his mother, grandmother and great grandfather - all Russian sculptors - he has been drawing, working with clay and mixing oil colours on canvases. Over the years Mikhail developed his own style and technique (he uses palette knives to merge layers of paint directly on the canvas, and then slice them open by scratching the finished painting), a style that cannot be directly categorized.
He also began photographing at an early age. His father, who worked in radio broadcasting for most of his career, taught him the basics of camera work and darkroom techniques, and got him interested in journalism.
In the late 1960's - early 1970's he lived in the United States, where his father was posted as a diplomat.
Later on, back in Moscow, he spent many hours in his mother's and grandmother's art studio discovering the art world, working on ceramics and painting, but eventually chose a different path, graduating from the Moscow State University with a Diploma in International Journalism.
In the mid 1980s, he began work as a reporter for TASSNews Agency, covering Gorbachev's perestroika, and then volunteered to serve in Afghanistan.
During a two-year tour of duty, he spent as much time amongst the 'grunts' of war, out in the firing line, as with the top brass. Based in Kabul, he traveled to many Afghan provinces and took part in many combat operations, flying on missions with the troops of the 103rd Airborne Division and with the Spetsnaz.
After the war, in the 1990s, he wrote and published in Russian the novel "Two Steps from Heaven". The novel is considered as a good example of Russian "accurate fiction", which puts a human face on the Soviet soldier without sparing the gory details like the top-down authority and license for physical punishment and humiliation within the Soviet Army, the mental suffering young soldiers and officers endured during their dramatic 10 year experience in Afghanistan, or the gruesome killings of innocent Afghan civilians.
Several chapters are available in English translationonline.
See also"The Empire Stopper"by Rod Nordland in The New York Times, 30 August 2017.
The covers of the 2006 and 2014 editions of the novel published in Russian by Eksmo.
An Mi-8 transport helicopter delivers supplies to a Soviet outpost near Kabul, 1988.
Mikhail Evstafiev covered the break-up of the Soviet Union, the political scene in the Kremlin under President Boris Yeltsin, as well as the economic hardships and political changes in Russia. He documented the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chechnya, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Tajikistan and Transdniestria.
In 1994, he was in Vladivostok covering the return to Russia of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn after the writer spent 20 years in exile.
Mikhail worked for Agence France-Presse in Moscow, and later for REUTERS, first in Moscow, and then in London and Washington D.C., leaving the agency in 2003.
As assistant producer and screen writer, Mikhail Evstafiev worked on several documentary films, including about the war in Afghanistan.
Since 2003, he lives with his family in Vienna, devoting his time to painting and writing, and also advises international organizations on communication and public relations matters.
Mikhail Evstafiev's photography and art work has been exhibited broadly, including in China, Europe, Russia and the United States.
His paintings and photographs are in the collections of the Pushkin Art Museum, the Moscow House of Photography and SOLMS, Gallery der Leica Camera AG, and in private collections and galleries in Andorra, Austria, Britain, Canada, France, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United States.
His work appeared in leading international magazines and newspapers and was published in numerous books, including Afghanistan: lifting the veil, Prentice Hall, 2002; Love: A Celebration of Humanity, William Morrow, 2001; Facing the World: Great Moments in Photojournalism, Harry N Abrams, 2001; Magic Moments II, Leica World, 2000. His work is listed in "Allgemeines Kuenstlerlexikon" (The World Biographical Dictionary of Artists), 2003 edition.
The Vienna studio
Мастерская в Вене
"Онне считал себя туристом; он был путешественником. Разница,как он себе разъяснял, отчасти вовремени. Турист, как правило,по истечении нескольких недель илимесяцев спешит домой, путешественник же, не привязанный к какому-то конкретному месту, медленнобредёт,порой годами, отодного уголка земли к другому. По правде говоря, он сам вряд ли смог быопределить,какое из тех многих мест, где ему довелось жить, было именно тем, где он чувствовал себя как дома".
Пол Боулз
"Под покровом небес"
Бог решает, какой длины будет твоя жизнь,
а ты решаешь, какой она будет ширины.
Михаил Евстафьев родился в Москве в 1963 г.
Живописью и фотографией начал заниматься в раннем возрасте.
После окончания журфака МГУ работал корреспондентом ТАСС. Добровольцем поехал в Афганистан, где служил два года офицером.
После Афганистана продолжал освещать тёмные стороны истории. Работал в агентствах Франс-Пресс, Рейтер. Много времени провёл в осаждённом Сараево, был свидетелем гражданской войны в Таджикистане, боевых действий в Нагорном Карабахе, Грузии, Приднестровье, Чечне.
С конца 1990-х годов преимущественно работал как редактор, сначала в Москве, а затем в Лондоне и Вашингтоне, продолжая, в свободное время, уделять время живописи и личным фотографическим проектам. Среди них: "Красный синдром" (1991-1998) о коммунистах; "Чужеземец в Лондоне" (1997-2000) о жизни его семьи; "Старообрядцы" и "Я - Куба".
Как продюсер и сценарист участвовал в съёмках нескольких документальных фильмов, в том числе о войне в Афганистане.
Фотографии и живопись Михаила Евстафьева экспонировались в Австрии, Венгрии, Великобритании, Канаде, Китае, России, США, в том числе во Дворце Хофбург в Вене, в Кремлёвском Дворце Съездов, Малом Манеже и в Центральном доме художника в Москве, а также в Нью-Йорке.
Его работы публиковались в таких изданиях, как Newsweek, Time Magazine, International Herald Tribune, Independent, Guardian, Liberation, Spiegel Magazine, а также во многих книгах.
Член Союза писателей и Союза фотохудожников России.
