Shortly after moving from Ufa, Russia to New York City in 1992, my grandmother tragically died, and my mother was murdered during the 1995 housing privatization. I was able to find their photo albums but didn’t open them until I began working on a new series exploring my childhood. During my research I found photos of family members I never knew anything about: my grandfather wearing a WWII pilot uniform, an uncle who sent the photo from Siberia to “his sisterâ€, my mother, and more. In the ongoing series “Lost Family†I leave parts of the black and white photographs untouched to represent the “present" life. Using color, and without any attempt at photo realism, I use oil paints to show a “fantasy†life. By creating a collage using my found family and childhood photographs, I connect the present and the past to covey an imagined story.
