Polina Polikarpova Photography
Holding
the Mirror
Polina Polikarpova is one of the representatives of the Ukrainian New Nostalgia of the 2010s. Working in both Kharkiv and Kyiv, she uses flanerie as her primary method and living spaces as her preferred set. She prefers to hold the mirror rather than be constantly reflected in it. This is what she sees.
Under the influence of her father, who worked in commercial photography, and her mother, a tailor, Polina absorbed both parents' practices and made them her own. During the 2010s, combining the role of photographer and costume designer in one person, she modelled images and scenes in the outskirts of her native Kharkiv, focusing on its local poetics. The characteristic of her style is compositions created here and now. She is drawn toward post-colonial interiors of residential apartments and brutal urban landscapes as opposed to the artificial studio environment.
Playing with the conventions of modern fashion photography and using its tricks and clichés, Polina creates her own anthology of extravagant images and their endless mimicry with the environment. Her focus is not devoid of autobiography. Through self-portraiture she discovers the nature of the relationship between herself and the model, self-identity, and millennial childhood. She currently does costume design for the Kharkiv-based theater Neft.
"She prefers to hold the mirror rather than be constantly reflected in it."
Polina Polikarpova My young Ukrainian colleagues.
A flaneur photo series. Pursuing a discreet review of depersonalised sites at different times of year and weather conditions, whether city or village, creating a series of silent, sometimes mystical and surrealist landscapes.
Pseudo-documentary photo series about her childhood and teenage years, from age seven to seventeen. Just beginning.
Polina Polikarpova 2020 became very meditative for me. I found a lot of time for re-thinking and creating a lot of projects which I couldn't find enough time for earlier. At the same time 2020 has been sneaky for my industry. A few commercial projects just cancelled or postponed indefinitely, so I have to think about some alternative freelance work or try to sell my prints more than I used to previously.
Absentee Series
Polina Polikarpova · 2019 to present
