Total Theater
Total Theater (self-published photobook dummy, edition 12 items, 15×21 cm, hardcover, 144 pages, thread-stitching binding, 2025 year)
Twenty-five years ago, I attended a drama school and came quite close to becoming an actor. Although I made a different life choice, that experience significantly influenced my personality. In 2023, I embarked on a project-investigation, returning to the theater environment — this time as an external observer. I aimed to reevaluate my experiences and memories. This project was captured at the experimental theater ‘Total Theater’ in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Stepping back allowed me to see things differently. I became fascinated by the subtle layers that shape identity in the world of theater. Within every person, numerous personas coexist: how they see themselves, how they aspire to be. For actors, there are additional layers — the characters they inhabit. Theater becomes a multi-layered image, like the stratified evening mist over a river. From the mist emerge contours of objects and people, yet one cannot be certain what is truly seen — the person themselves or one of their roles.
In this book, the boundary between the audience and the stage, between what happens before and after the performance, becomes blurred. The project has a cyclical nature, mirroring the rhythm of life in the theater – from piece reading and rehearsals to the moment when tired actors head home after the show. It represents a deeply personal perception on the theater, shared by both me and the project’s protagonists.
Photography technique – 35mm film (incl. multiple exposures/projections) and physical objects scanograms.
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The book is based on the ‘Total Theater’ photo project, which was shortlisted for the Gomma Grant 2023 and received recognition from international competitions, including awards at the FotoSlovo Award, Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards, and Analog Sparks, as well as special mentions at the Tokyo International Foto Awards and Monochrome Photography Awards.
Night on Earth
Night on Earth (20 copies, 2023 year)
Night is a special time. Many spend it at home, in front of the TV or smartphone screen, but not everyone. Public transport drivers and doctors also work at night, some engage in nighttime sports, others return home from gatherings, and lovers stroll embracing each other. At night, encounters with people and objects are perceived as unique, as if the daytime noise has been lifted from the world, and only special events pass through the nocturnal filter.
Perhaps this happens because in the genetic memory of every person, nighttime has been imprinted as the most dangerous period. Predators go hunting at night, and attacks from hostile tribes can occur. In unsafe urban areas, the risk of assault is higher than during the day. In darkness, a person loses the sharpness of vision, and therefore, control over the world around him. That’s why at night, a person’s senses and perception become heightened, even if they are in a safe place. We perceive the world differently at night.
I aim to showcase moments that imply a narrative: the hidden beginnings and endings of untold stories. These are the instances where our heightened senses at night scream that they cannot exist on their own, that there is something concealed from us nearby. By day, they might be mundane scenes, but at night, they take on new meaning, unsettling the vestiges of our psyche, which, much like in the Stone Age, scans the night for a tiger rather than an antelope.
On Orbite
On Orbite (30 copies, 2024 year)
‘Orbita’ is a district in the southwest of the Almaty city, Kazakhstan. This area began to be developed with typical Soviet blocks in the 1970s. Today, Orbita stands as a realm unto itself, a ‘city within a city,’ because it is isolated from other city areas, bordered on one side by a river and on the other by a highway.
I often pass by Orbita on my way to and from work. As autumn and winter fog descends upon Almaty, I find myself drawn to the edges of Orbita, where Soviet edifices loom like specters in the fog. I’ve always wanted to take a stroll there and explore this area.
From January to March of 2024, I embarked on a quest — a visual odyssey dedicated to capturing the essence of Orbita in a visual diary. I started this project on the day of an earthquake in Almaty January 22nd and finished it on my birthday, March 2nd. The diary tells about the light and dark sides of Orbita: about children’s ice rinks, past murders, graffiti, space communication ground station and meetings with old friends, but mostly it talks about my perception of the surrounding world.
Welcome to Orbite.
