Uldus Bakhtiozina

Apart from her very striking aesthetic, the foremost quality of Uldus Bakhtiozina’s work that I noticed is that her conceptual intention is very apparent in her photographs – the notion of escapism and the construction of a fantastical character and landscape is prominently reflected in her images and is a very appealing aspect as it invites the audience to enter into this scenery and further engage with it.  From listening to her TED talk (a side note: I also learnt that she is the first Russian to ever do a TED talk which is so wonderful!), there were a few aspects of her work that stood out to me which are the fact that she refers to herself as a documentary photographer and the experience of alternate reality created for both the artist and the models.

Firstly, Bakhtiozina refers to herself as a “documentary photographer in a different sense,” referring to the fact that she “documents dreams.” In her words, she works with “daily life as it could be” by reimagining it in a whimsical new vision. This to me is an interesting perspective as at first, I never would have referred to her work as documentary photography. Hence, her words made me think about what we commonly understand the difference between “documentation” and “imagination” to be. I think we often make these distinctions in art, and it makes me think of when people refer to hyper realistic drawings or paintings to be documentations of reality, when actually reality is being interpreted through the eyes of the artist. I would even extend this idea to documentary photography, wherein even what we call “objective reality” is interpreted through the subjective lens of the photographer, who chooses what to include and exclude. I think to some extent this warrants a thought about what aspects of this process are creative if not “imaginative”. Moreover, Bakhtiozina also mentions that she “loves things that are authentic and deal with our innermost nature, which [she] would never want to escape from.” This is such an inspiring sentiment to me, as it shows not only the influence of reality on her work at a superficial level, but also reflects the inherent humanity and childlike sense of wonder and fantasy that exists in her work. It also reminds me of Stephanie Syjuco’s questioning of what “the authentic” is, and Bakhtiozina seems to answer this by referring to it as that which derives from our innermost selves.

Bakhtiozina’s photography creates an experience of alternate reality both for the models she is styling as well as for herself as the artist, which is a very unique process of creating photographs in my opinion. She works with “individuals who are survivors,” who are “fighting against life circumstances” and as an artist she states her goal is to create “different lives for [her] models in order to give them the experience of being someone else in reality.” She takes on the challenge of realising the vision of another person and capturing it in photographs which I believe is quite the task. Normally fantasy landscapes arise from the mind of the artist and are then translated with their own hands into a realised work. To accomplish this with someone else’s vision of a fantasy, especially those who are suffering in reality, and to do so in a way that satisfies both the model and artists is quite a pressure-laden task, and hence it is unquestionably impressive to me that Bakhtiozina is able to achieve it.

Moreover, while she wants to capture “the moment when [her models] believe in being someone else entirely,” the process he undertakes in her work I believe also provides the same experience for her in some ways. She works entirely in analog and creates “every single thing”, from outfits to the stage. She doesn’t make any digital manipulations to her works, which necessitates that everything that is presented in her photos takes place in reality. Again to me this is very impressive, especially in context of the fact that all the classes I have taken this semester, in one way or another have taught me how to digitally manipulate things in my art. In making things entirely by hand, I think she is immersing herself fully in the fantasy of her model, which I presume not only enables her to execute it more effectively but also engages her more deeply in a different imaginative space, allowing her to integrate new ideas into it, as well as derive new inspiration.

Finally, her work reminds me of the photography of Alia Romagnoli who is a young photographer working between London and Bangalore. Similar to Bakhtiozina, she creates whimsical portraits of mostly people of colour, with a focus on fashion and portraiture, and the incorporation of themes such as identity and representation. Her work is reminiscent of Bakhtiozina’s as it also carries a similar aesthetic and has the same sense of fantasy and the dreamlike sense that is pervasive in Bakhtiozina’s work.

Provided References:
Uldus Bakhtiozina

Work from:
3rd Dec 2020 – Daily Vitamins Assignment
Time with Professor Mike Rader