“..I often use the most typical poses in my self-portraits, both masculine and feminine. At some point, somebody decided that women must pose this way and men — the other. Nude portraits of heterosexuals differ from the portraits of homosexuals. People are under control of certain stereotypes: left step, right step — and you are on the “other side”.

I’ve noticed my body has become more flexible than it was, let’s say, 15 years ago. I can form almost anything out of it. And I can afford myself to swing back from any pattern relating to the body, a posture, a gesture, compared to me at twenty when my mind was still blinkered by traditional (patriarchal), soviet style education.»

Dima Zharov was born in 1981. Artist, working with photography. Born in Kazakhstan, he is now based in St. Petersburg. Dima participated in collective exhibitions in the UK, Italy and Russia. He was shortlisted in Bird in Flight Prize, Panasonic Readers' Choice Award (2019) and Direct Look photo contest (2017). In 2019 Dima was a resident of workshop-residency "Project Photography", Summer School.