Tolmachev analyzes the photographic document as an operational tool that actively configures historical narratives. He approaches image-making as a form of excavation within the medium itself: deconstructing existing documents to expose their conditions of visibility, framing, and distribution. His work examines the "institutional gaze" and the technological apparatuses that render the capture of an event possible.
Unfolding the archival image, Tolmachev transforms documents into spatial configurations, employing sound and video to expose the mechanisms of control and hidden scripts behind the representation. His current research investigates the broader logistics of state violence and erasure. Using the archives of the Solovetsky Camp as a primary case study, he engages with the discrepancy between the visible trace and the erased historical event. He aims to construct a digital counter-archive—a space where fragmented visual traces are reassembled to restore the capacity for critical judgment.
Tolmachev holds a diploma from the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig and is currently a PhD candidate at the Bauhaus University Weimar. His work has been presented at venues including Tate Modern (London), the Kyiv Biennial, Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe), the State Tretyakov Gallery, and Moscow Museum of Modern Art.