This project Espace Quelconque was done during the studying on the course “Photography as a research”, The Foundation of Cultural and Informational Projects FotoDepartament, Saint-Petersburg (www.fotodepartament.ru) in 2012.
Someone somewhere at some point
I have to admit this story still has lots of blind spots for me, maybe due to the fact that I’m the lead character. My assignment was to do a work on the subject of self-identification. I started working on it by asking myself questions: “Who am I?”, “What am I like?”. The first attempts to answer them honestly failed. I felt that the truth was somewhere close, but slipping. The answer, which had been true the day before, required clarifying or sounded differently. Apparently, to me there is no definite answer for these questions at all. Or I don’t want to know them, evading the certainty subconsciously.
At the same time, I was looking for something significant to identify myself with. This process resembled fumbling for something in a wardrobe where stuff piled up for years. My present self took things from these imaginary piles and tried them on, deciding if they fit or not.
This is how the shots from The Passenger by M. Antonioni (it was released as Occupation – reporter in Russian cinemas) got into this project. Something strong has been connecting me with this movie for long years. By using pictures from The Passenger in the project, I strive to find out what links it with my identity, since I’m absolutely sure that, if my story didn’t include them, it wouldn’t have been about me.
I think you don’t have to be familiar with the movie to comprehend my work (still, you have to see it sometime if you didn’t). I guess that, as strange as it may sound, it teaches me photography.
Alla Mirovskaya
