In ‘Fertility’ series the author turns to mythology and daily graft of ancient women in Slavic culture to reconsider the role of a woman in the modern society.
Brought up in matriarchal family, the author have been shooting women from her nearest round-up, relatives and daughters for 4 years; she also appears as a hero in the one of photos in a try to live out the ancestors’ experience, to feel the sacral dispensation of a primeval woman, to retrace her secret connection with the Earth. Also being partly a try to find self identity, the work on ‘Fertility’ series makes the author to reflect on ‘female mission’ and an intuitive part of a female self, gradually lost with civilization development. Images does not only demonstrate bare female essence, opening it layer by layer; they reveal the uncertain perceptions about female purpose in the modern world.
Photographs depict simple scenes from daily female life, partly out from any time context. Using staging, the author aims to get documentary feeling, that highlights a traced moment just as a pause in daily routine. Women appear as faceless figures with naked breasts recollecting some primitive arts, that portrayed women as small figures without faces, having huge stomachs and breasts. The author refers to ancient artistic traditions in an attempt to recall mind to the initial order of things and to underline the symbolic meanings of plots. Gathering and storage of seeds, preserving food, agriculture and usual routines become mysteries and personify the cult of Mother, spinning the endless string of Universe. The theme of female fertility takes a special place in series as a possibility to bear children and bring them up. Here it is closely connected to the theme of earth fertility and favorable natural conditions, that are so necessary for the clan survival. [Official Website]
