This winter my mother moved from the apartment where I grew up. The first photograph in this series is a photo of the only room already empty — the room that was the bedroom, living room, and my room. It’s also the first photo I made there deliberately. When I was growing up the apartment got into the frame only by chance on 'zero' frames of film.
'Zero' frames are partially exposed, so already doomed, probably ruined anyway, could just push the shutter button without thinking, but I aimed the camera at something anyway, not waiting for a result. Usually — a random object in view — the window, some things, my mom, the cat.
In this series, I combine these pictures with photos I took of the Yekaterinburg city in the 2000s when I was in school. The 2000s (sometimes called 'The Zeros' in Russian) were a time when many places, including the city I grew up in, were struggling to find their identity, changing from a typical post-Soviet appearance to something more unique. In these photos are places that were important for me personally back then: the river in the center of the city, the forest, a street with a tram line close to our apartment.
Everything together is a reconstruction of my childhood, the decorations in front of which it took place, a partially imagined reality shared with my generation. This series is an attempt to explore the past and build links to the present: the final frame was made in 2020: it shows the same forest as in the 2000s.
All pictures except the first one and the last one are from 2006-2009. Different films, different cameras.
