My Work Is My Personal Theatre

Photography merges with painting—In her works, Russian artist Katerina Belkina uniquely combines visual art forms with digital image processing. An illustrated book with art historical discourse.

When looking at the pictures of Katerina Belkina, it is not clear which medium you are looking at—a photograph or a painting? In her works, the Russian artist uniquely combines techniques of photography with forms of representation of the visual arts. Using a digital brush, she imbues her photographic works with a weightless, dreamlike atmosphere, elevating the reality of the snapshot to an expanded and enhanced reality. In doing so, she creates her very own genre.

The focus of her works is always the human being, mostly the woman. In the process, Belkina herself takes on a triple cast of characters: she is motif, director, and visual artist all at once. Based on feminist principles, the Russian artist shows everyday life from a female perspective, where the woman is not presented as an object, but is above all energy. In her picture series “Not a Man’s World” she presents herself self-confidently smoking a pipe and with a raised forefinger. However, Belkina does not want to denounce, but rather seeks answers to the question: who is she as a woman, an artist, a mother, or a member of a society?
Silver award winner (shortlist) at the German Photo Book Award 21/22 in the category Conceptual-Artistic Photo Book.