Boris Savelev was born in Czernowitz, Ukraine in 1947 and moved to Moscow in 1966. He graduated from the Institute of Aeronautics and after developing an interest in photography in 1963, he joined the Moscow Photography Club Novator in 1970, going on to start his career as a photographer in his home country of Ukraine. From 1982, Savelev worked on a freelance basis for publishing houses in the USSR and abroad. After becoming a full time photographer in the early 1980s, Savelev went on to have numerous exhibitions worldwide. He first came to the attention of the Western art world with the publication of Secret City by Thames and Hudson in 1988. This photobook established Savelevs' reputation as one of the most serious artists of a new generation of photographers emerging from the former Sovient Union