Daria Djalelova ; Do not Forget

My name is Daria Djalelova . I imagine conceptual photo. The main thing of my snapshot is the idea. My inspiration born from both everydaylife thing and historical subjects.

I was born in a small town surrounded by villages, still preserved their way of life and customs. There a lot of beautiful places where the historical movies were made: rocky mountains, steep cliffs, endless forest. I love my motherland and it reflects in my art. From my childhood I listened my grandmother’s stories about wartime enthusiastically. She was a child in a time of war.

Now she is 82 years old and she didn’t forget this terrible time. She often shows to me her father’s photos. She saw him at the last time when he had left her and sat in the last train. So I decided to dedicate this story to the story of my family. It was important to show in the pictures the ordinary way of life of girls who in spite of wartime create their peaceful island. Where they continue to be friends, to fall in love, to enjoy the summer.

As an inspiration was a great Soviet film “Dawns Here Are Quiet”. Unlike our plot of the film, the girls bathed in cold spring water, for the purpose to draw away German saboteurs. Photography “Do not Forget” took  place in the conservation area “Talkov Kamen”, which is in 100 km far from my house. It is one of the most beautiful places in the Urals. The girls, dressed in military costumes, went to the lake through the forest, listening the patriotic songs. It was unforgettable, the heart beat faster and faster! There is no family in Russia, who hadn’t felt the War time. And that’s why, all models had no need to “play” their roles, they just re-lived the lives of their nearest and dearest, they tried to remember all of them, those, who have already gone.

As for the technical moments, before I chose the place, I’ve looked through the photos. And I found out that the lake is surrounded by the forest and the light would be “overhead”. This lack of light in an usual photography could make the result worse, but in my story it played a defining role in the process of dramatic image transferring. Making a choice of the color, I always look up to my own feelings. As a rule, from the very beginning I imagine the final result of the process and I reach that imagination with the help of post-editing.

I would like to gratitude to all girls for their participation (Anastasiya Korolyova, Anastasiya Krivoruchko, Natal’ya Solov’yova, Mariya Yakovets). Each of you put a great impact in the creation of the atmosphere. Let it be a bathing moment in the icy mountain lake or in the touching stories about last times days. [ Md Anastasia Koroleva,Anastasia Krivoruchko,Evgenia Polushkina,Maria Yakovets,Natalia Solovyova ]