Born in Smolensk in what was still the USSR, Valentin Šimankov enrolled in the 1980s at the Art School in Leningrad (re-named St Petersburg in 1991) to study photography and theatre. Two years later disagreements with some of his teachers saw him quit school to pursue a creative career as a self-taught photographer. Until 1993, his work remained relatively classical and was given several exhibitions, but following a difficult period in his life, things changed and he began a series of photocollages on cardboard and book covers. The father of eight children, Šimankov nevertheless eked out a living on the margins of society by selling his work on the street or at markets in St Petersburg. He became attached to the Orthodox faith, but developed a personal practice far removed from official church dogma.

Šimankov worked with his own photographs, printed matter including  torn-up newspapers and music scores, and book covers. He arranged the paper fragments around his images – mostly cityscapes and portraits of his family – and sometimes embellished these collages with gouache and felt-tip pens.