The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is close to signing a cultural agreement with Iran which will see the Russian institution collaborating with its Iranian counterparts on a series of joint exhibitions. The agreement will also increase scholarly exchange between the two countries. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Hermitage director, Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky, said: “We plan to sign an agreement with Iran but there’s no precise date at the moment. It depends on when the Iranians send a delegation to conclude the agreement.”

Andrey Chezhin Biography. Born in 1960 in Leningrad Graduated from Leningrad institute of cinema engineers (1982). Began to take photographs at the time. Photo club ,,Mirror" member(1985). The group “TAK” member(1987). A participant of art’s association ,”Photopostscriptum”(1993). The Association of Russian photo arts member(1995). S-Petersburg humanistic fund, ”Freeculture” member(1996). ”International Federation of artists” (IFA) member (1998). Chezhin is an organizer and a supervisor of the annual festival “Autumn Photo Marathon” (1998-2005). He is the Director of the gallery “PHOTOimage”. Today the artist is working like free-lance photographer.

Black and white photography (and, latterly, colour photography) always emphasises the dividing line marking the intersection between time(s) and space(s), the intersection and interpenetration of today and yesterday, today and tomorrow - of my life and someone else’s. It points to the event experienced by a person (someone we know or don’t know, myself, just someone, nature, or society as a whole) at the moment when my attention is directed at the rectangular frame recording that which has already been and gone and which is yet present in my life just so long as I am looking at (remembering) it.