His work interrogates how images and objects document history while questioning their reliability in constructing truth and reality.
Drawing from his background in photography, Tolmachev engages with found materials and personal narratives, employing research-based methodologies to explore the boundaries between memory, documentation, and experience.
Tolmachev received his diploma from the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Bauhaus University in Weimar.
His work has been exhibited at venues such as the Tate Modern (London), the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), Düsseldorfphoto+ and the Kyiv Biennale, as well as other prominent international locations.
Tolmachev is currently working on a digital archive of hundreds of photographs from one of the first Soviet forced labor camp, aiming to create a shared, open-structured space to explore, reflect and document social traumas in a context where memory is under constant threat.