Valentin Simankov enrolled at the Saint Petersburg Art School, where he studied photography, theater, and film. After two years, he left, believing that the academic framework had stifled his artistic vision and creativity. He then chose to "unlearn."

Valentin Simankov experienced family problems in the early 1990s. After a long period of drug and alcohol abuse, he turned to faith. It was during this mystical period that Valentin Simankov found his style: multi-layered collages made from his own photographs, excerpts from books, letters, and poetic commentary. The floor of his house is littered with undeveloped film; sometimes he makes prints using old photographic paper.

The photographer ignores digital photography and everything related to it; his work is done exclusively in black and white film. He improvises in the printing process, using chemicals whose formulas he keeps secret. His art, which often employs humor and derision, masks his deep religious feeling and ecstatic states of mind: "When I take a picture I see a God in front of me, and you..."