Pavel Khlebnikov
BIOGRAPHY
In 1993, when I was ten years old, our family moved from Moscow to Switzerland. For the past few years I have lived in Châtel-St-Denis. I have two very lively sons who love spending time in the great outdoors.
From a very young age I have enjoyed observing nature and in particular the night sky. I am very keen on astronomy, sports, and photography. Gazing at the sky brings me peace and enables me to meditate, oblivious to the time going by. Nature gives me inspiration. Through photography I capture some of the precious moments and positive emotions that I experience in order to share them with others.
My knowledge of the universe comes from books, from internet sources, from university physics courses in Neuchâtel, and from encounters with people, especially in astronomical societies. I am presently a member of the Société astronomique du haut Léman (Astronomical society of the upper Lake Leman region) in Vevey.
What makes a moment precious is the meaning - and therefore importance - we give to it. Even though events such as sunsets or the phases of the moon or northern lights are repeated over and over again, each time we see them it gives us a unique experience, emotion, and thing to remember. It has become important for me to share such experiences through photography. I’ve been taking pictures for a long time, but only since 2024 have exhibited my work. In 2025 a multiple-arts project called Immersion céleste (celestial immersion) was developed in collaboration with other artists.
Artistic approach
By watching he sky in Switzerland, either with the naked eye or through telescopes, I’ve seen eclipses of the sun and of the moon, shooting stars, comets, nebulae, northern lights, and a few galaxies. As I looked for a harmonious balance between the light, colours, and contrasts that I saw, it is photography that came to me naturally and intuitively as the means of artistic expression through which I could share my rich experiences and emotions.
Astrophotography enables one to capture the light of the stars with various techniques such as the use of a motorized mount that compensates for the Earth's rotation during long exposures. I remember taking my first astro photos during the complete eclipse of the sun in Germany in 1999, at the age of sixteen, and during the transit of Venus across the Sun – a very rare event – in 2004.
In recent years I’ve been finding my inspiration in nature and taking pictures that combine the night sky with elements of landscape, such as trees, mountains, a cross on a mountain peak, and so forth. I like to think of my photographs as paintings with an object on a celestial background.
Exhibitions
2024 February -March « Objectif Astrophoto », School library of CO, Châtel-St-Denis
2024 August to November « Les rendez-vous célestes », Café de la randonnée, Les Paccots
2025 June thru August « Au-delà du visible », Villa St-François HFR, Fribourg
2025 December, collective exhibition « pARTage », Galerie Image-In, Châtel-St-Denis
2026 May 3, Photo market in Vevey, salle del Castillo : Astrophotos stand
2025, 2026… « Immersion céleste », a multidisciplinary presentation with photos, music, and myths… Institut St-François de Sâles, Châtel-St-Denis
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Re-Visionary symbol: I leave my work free of copyright so that it can be shared among people who wish to reproduce it in the spirit of the Collective, as long as they indicate me as author.
Copyright symbol: I am the copyright holder of my own works: my work cannot be reproduced, except by the Re-Visionary Art Collective, under the conditions as indicated above in point 1. Unless I give my written consent.