Project Statement

I am Russian by birth, American by marriage. As an immigrant, I have a heart in both cultures which leaves me in a constant surreal, liminal state where I stand between the familiar and the new. A 25 plus-hour flight, 10-hour time zone difference, and 6066 miles in between contribute to my sense of unrootedness.

My project, Moscow – LA began in 2013 when I moved to Los Angeles. Created as a way to make sense of living in two different worlds, the series conveys the way I see, feel and adjust to a new home, and also how I experience Moscow when I return as a visitor. It’s home, but it’s not.

This surreal state of mind has resulted in photographs that are sometimes blurred or show overlapping memories of two significant cities in my life. Sometimes it feels like living in two different worlds and I find myself not belonging to either of them. I look for moments that are unremarkable but give clues to something larger. Facial expressions, emotions, and body language provide candid portraits, catching people in their own thoughts as a way to capture my own. Between the clarity and dreaminess, time and the moment, I transform my state of mind into sensual abstracts, exploring shape, patterns, shadows, and reflections.

This series is about my relationship to place, memory, and time, but most importantly, it’s about my relationship to myself, which is where I find home.