about FotoTOP

about FotoTOP project

FotoTOP is a public organization of photographers. Its goal is to promote fine art photography in Russia and abroad. FotoTOP organizes and hosts exhibitions, projects, and an annual festival.

The project was founded in 2020 by Oleg Arnautov.

FotoTop is a curatorial project by Oleg Arnautov and the FotoTop team he formed. Oleg Arnautov defines the strategic goals and final forms of the project. FotoTop was preceded by the New Gallery project and an art residency in the Izmailovo Kremlin (a collaboration between Oleg Arnautov, Evgeny Berezner, and Vyacheslav Kabanov). Support from the Galleries of Classical Photography made it possible to realize the FotoTop project.

In 2021, FotoTOP held its first international exhibition, presenting various genres and trends in photography.

"PhotoTOP 2022 Still Life" is a genre exhibition scheduled for 2022.

"PhotoTop 2023 Portrait" is a festival with a large program and genre exhibition in November-December 2023.

Thematic festival "PhotoTOP 2024 Man and the City. Myth and Reality" will be held in September-October 2024.

The "PhotoTOP.Names" festival in 2025 was held at the "Russian Museum of Photography" (Nizhny Novgorod) with the special project "Forest and Garden" by Oleg Arnautov, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Thematic exhibition "PhotoTOP.Yabloko" was the opening of the partner space, the contemporary art gallery "13.20," in 2025.

PhotoTOP exhibitions and festivals from 2021 to 2024 were held at the "Gallery of Classical Photography" in Moscow. Since 2022, FotoTOP exhibitions have been shown annually in Vitebsk, Belarus, as part of the FotoKROK festival.

Since 2024, FotoTOP has collaborated with the Tretyakov Gallery, and since 2025, with the Russian Museum of Photography and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
A number of outstanding works by the artists have been donated to the museums' photography departments.

FotoTOP collaborates with the following galleries: Mosselprom, 13.20, and the Gallery of Classical Photography.

The FotoTOP festival collaborates with photography institutes: IGUMO, IPLF, and MGIK.

In 2025, several FotoTOP artists were featured in the contemporary art section of the ArtMoscow fair at the Mosselprom Gallery stand. In 2025, the Russian Museum of Photography and PhotoTOP BRICS presented the project "Three Spaces" featuring a Chinese photographer at the ArtMir fair.

In 2025, a series of group and solo exhibitions were held at partner galleries in Moscow and at the Moscow Regional Exhibition Center (OVZ), Na Khodynka, Na Trubnaya, and in St. Petersburg in 2025-2026 at the 2/17 Gallery.

Since 2021, the exhibitions have been accompanied by the release of albums reflecting the content of the group and solo exhibitions. Since 2024, projects and individual exhibitions have been accompanied by art criticism texts by Nikita Erofeev, Senior Research Fellow at the Tretyakov Gallery.

The FotoTOP Team
Oleg Arnautov is the founder, curator of exhibitions, and strategist of the FotoTOP project.
Mikhail Stenin is the producer of the FotoTOP project.
Ivan Filimonov is the publisher of the FotoTOP project.

PhotoTOP currently collaborates with a number of institutions, creative associations, festivals, and online resources: the Gallery of Classical Photography, the Union of Photographers of Russia, IGUMO, MGIK, IPLIF, Art-Tsokol "K Sebe," the "Nigde Krome" gallery, the FotoKROK festival, photographer.ru, and others.

PhotoTOP is developing relationships with new partners and is open to collaboration.

* FotoTOP Agency - the agency offers non-exclusive collaboration between authors and curators to promote their work and sell the works of authors included in the collaboration agreement. The agency acts as an intermediary between authors, museums and galleries, between authors and dealers, between authors and buyers, between authors and any interested parties.