Evgenia Arbugaeva Talk – The Photographers’ Gallery
As a part of my professional development planning blog, I
was required to attend multiple talks in regard to my studies at galleries in
order to gain further insight into my desired area of photography. I decided to
attend a talk at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, online, with the
photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva who is a documentary photographer from Russia whose
work focuses on the idea of narrative and storytelling using landscape and
documentary photography. By focusing on these themes, her work often links to the
idea of magical realism by creating photographs that resonate with fable, myth,
and romanticism. Her work which has been documented within the Russian Arctic
focusing on the stories and narrative of the landscape and the people who live
and work there has been showcased in the popular publication National Geographic
Magazine. With the talk put on by The Photographers’ Gallery, Evgenia Arbugaeva
showcased her most recent on ongoing project titled ‘Hyperborea’.
is a project based around documentary and
landscape photography focusing on creating a story and narrative on the themes
of myth, fable, and the lives and stories of the people who live and work within
the Russian Arctic of Tiksi. Within this project, the artist, creates
photographs of the different people of Tiksi who live in the isolated Russian
Arctic, working in the meteorological and weather stations as well as on the
icebreaker ship, comparing the different views she has on the Arctic instead of
the people who live and work there. By focusing her work on these different
comparisons, her work compares her whimsical view of the Russian Arctic to that
of the ‘homely’ view that the workers have there. The people living and working
within the Russian Arctic often use older work methods and techniques within
the meteorological stations such as radios and the isolated feeling that people
there are so often at home and relaxed with almost like they have become a part
of the landscape with time.
Her focus on these themes and subjects within her
photographic project leads to a lot of comparisons and contrasting imagery
being made between the ‘homey’ and whimsical views that each person has
compared to the artist. This comparison often gets visually shown within her
work by documenting interior photographs of the workers within the landscape or
inside the meteorological stations that they work in and have since then made
into their homes. Whereas her photographs of just the landscape alone focusing
on the serene and magical landscape combined with the Russian Northern Lights
shown above.
Whilst researching the work of Evgenia Arbugaeva and
attending the online talk at The Photographers’
Gallery I realised a few
similarities between her work and my own. A lot of my photographic work is
inspired through the themes of narrative and storytelling, emotions, and
atmosphere through both my experiences in music and concert photography as well
as my own editorial and personal photography projects. Attending the talk at The
Photographers’ Gallery has given me a lot of insight into the way that I portray
my themes within my own photography and how it can be developed further with my
knowledge gained from the analysis of Evgenia Arbugaeva’s work and the talk at
the gallery.
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