Mikhail Porollo is a Belgian artist, was born in the Soviet Union. His childhood and most of his teenage years were spent in the USSR, and then Russia, where he attended art school. During that time, his father – a passionate amateur photographer himself – introduced him to this craft. They spent many hours in an improvised darkroom in their apartment, developing films and enlarging photographs. But only years later, after graduating with a master’s in engineering, he returned to photography. This happened in the beginning of the 2000s, after meeting Lynn Davis – a well-known American photographer. It was a turning point in his life. He decided to start experimenting with photography on a different level, aiming to become a photographer himself.
Later on, after moving to South Africa, where he spent about two years, he studied photography in the South African College of Photography.
In 2009 he moved to Belgium where he still resides today. He continued his practice and attended various courses and workshops in different countries including Namibia, Russia and the UK. In 2014, as a way to get out of his comfort zone he decided to go back to art school. In 2015 he graduated with a master’s degree in visual arts. For him, it was a significant change in his artistic career. This training led him to a different approach to his projects, a change of focus and of execution. Since then he is more interested in different genres of photography including self-portrait and various media like video, installation and sound.
Today, he continues his experiments and challenges himself through an investigative, methodized and introspective approach. As he has always been a disciplined person and had passion for order, symmetry, and balance, he still endeavours to generate work of reflective nature.

• 1978 – Born in Ordzhonikidze, USSR
• 1995 – 1998 – BEng in Railway Engineering, Rostov-on-Don State University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
• 1998 – 2001 – MEM in Railway Engineering, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
• 2008 – 2009 – South African College of Photography
• 2008 – 2010 – Workshops and specialist courses in South Africa, Namibia, Belgium and Russia
• 2011, 2012 – Central Saint Martins college of Art and Design, London, UK
• 2014 – 2015 – MA in Visual Arts, LUCA School of Arts, Brussels, Belgium

Prizes and Awards:

• 2016 – 2nd Prize winner, Moscow International Foto Awards 2016
• 2014 – Honorable mention in IPA, International Photography Awards 2014
• 2014 – 1st Prizewinner, International Color Awards 2014
• 2013 – Honorable mention, International Colour Awards 2013
• 2013 – Finalist of the Le Vif / Knack Week-End Photo Awards 2013
• 2011 – 2nd Prize winner, International Colour Awards 2011
• 2011 – Finalist of the National Belgian competition ART’Contest 2011
• 2010 – Short-listed in Collection RTBF / Canvas Collecie 2010