Strange Female Portraits by Tatsiana Tsyhanova

Tatsiana Tsyhanova is a photographer who earned several worldwide awards in photography such as Sony World Photography Awards 2017, Monochrome Photography Awards 2017 and took part in photographic exhibitions in England, France, Slovenia, Belarus, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Turkey etc.

In February 2018 Tatsiana Tsyhanova reached honorary title Artist in the International Federation of Photographic Art.

First of all, Tatsiana’s works in the direction of artistic portrait photography. In the author’s works, there are a lot of features of magical realism, such as directions in literature and art that was born in the 1920s and developed by the 1940s. Originally, the term “magical realism” was applied to the works of Latin American prose writers who wrote about the Indians and black inhabitants of America having a mental world that is radically different from the European culture.

Characters which were like the mediums of the collective mythological consciousness united the features of their national group, relying on popular beliefs and everyday rituals. Strange, fantastic elements of everyday life formed the general atmosphere of the works. At present, the main features of this trend include full involvement of heroes without any internal or external resistance to the world of strange and fantastic events, distortion of time and sensory accents. In visual arts and photography, magical realism allows people to see ordinary objects which maximize their own inner essence, contrasts in size, colors and shapes.

In a series of photos called “Strange Female Portraits” Tatsiana Tsyhanova shows the main characteristic features of the style and its own vision. In addition to the direction of magical realism, the author used one more interesting technique, which created the illusion of “watching eyes” on a flat image. It does not matter where the audience stands as “strange women” always look at each person attentively. This effect adds even more mysticism and atmosphere to Tatsiana’s pictures. The author arranged the models in such a way that they looked strictly at the camera to enhance the illusion of watching eyes. At the same time, the portraits have a clear characterization of the characters and proportions, which make it possible to mainly emphasize the women’s faces. Emotions emphasize a person’s peace and relaxation on a picture. The background carries the function of a dark frame, on which the colors of the portrait are more pronounced.

The photographer does not give the models bright clothes. All costumes are very simple and have a muted color scheme. But practically every woman holds in her hands an object that allows her emotion and sensuality to be more deeply revealed. The lack of cosmetics on the women’s faces and the complete denial of modern canons of beauty help the author to focus attention on the eyes of characters, attracting the observer’s attention to them. Tatsiana Tsyhanova’s portraits are filled with the harmony of darkness and light complementing each other. The photographer does not avoid using significant areas of the negative space of the portrait to enhance its filing. In the end, it has to be said that Tatsiana Tsyhanova doesn’t take photos but rather she creates the scenes rooted in her soul.