Description
In Anastasia Tsyder’s series the ideal image of somewhere existing but hidden from us Russian province materializes. The photographs show us something that has never been seen, most likely irretrievably lost, but extremely familiar – from painting, book illustrations, films. The author departs from her usual documentary style and immerses the viewer into the ephemeral space of his own (viewer’s) ideas about the once-existing idyll. Despite the illusory nature of this world, photographs are the convincing proof of its existence. Vaguely familiar images appear and become instantly recognizable – yes, that’s exactly how it looked. The author selectively leaves the signs of modernity behind the scenes, placing photographs in timelessness. Those few modern objects remaining in the frame, not being connected with modernity aesthetically, confirm the reality of what we saw. By depriving photographs of the time dimension, the author takes the next step and removes them of the habitual space, populating the mythical “Mzensk” with them.
28 pages