Born in 1974 in a rural community near Vladivostok, Yury Toroptsov left his native Russia in 1998 to study at the New School for Social Research in New York after having won a prestigious scholarship. Nourished by his Far-Eastern origins, American travels and the current residence in Europe, Yury Toroptsov keeps at the core of his work what constitutes a common denominator for those distant cultures: people and their identity and the permanence of myths. Memories, metamorphosis, profane and sacred are the recurring themes in his photographs.
Toroptsov's photographs have been featured in numerous personal and group shows including at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris (2008), Paris Photo (2008), Moscow House of Photography (2013). In 2014 he won the appointment of the Arch'Isle International Photographer in Residence in Jersey (British Channel Island). Lives and works in Paris.


Claude d'Anthenaise is Chief Curator of the french Museum of Hunting and Nature in Paris, France.