Julia Tikhomirova is an Italy based Russian photographer. Born in Saint Petersburg in 1981 she began taking photographs while graduating from Journalism Faculty of San Petersburg State University. For years she worked as correspondent for a German-Russian newspaper and later moved to Bern, Switzerland to coordinate the Russian editorial office of the Swiss Radio International. She pursued her interest in photography by enroling on a photography course at Bologna Fine Art Academy and later she got a master’s degree in photoediting at Rome Luiss Business School. She studies the technical and ethical aspects of digital post-production for Photojournalism.
She is interested in exploring the human condition and relationships as well as the social contest of various communities. She collaborates with different photography associations as an account manager and curator and is a co-founder of Y’art Project cultural association that promotes photography and video.
The submitted images make part of a long-term project titled “Wandering Times” (2005- 2011). The project “Wandering Times” has started as a sort of photographic diary during the years Tikhomirova lived in Italy after her emigration from the homeland Russia. Without any narrative intention Tikhomirova reveals through her images the thoughts and feelings she experienced during the period that was caracterized by happy events (her son’s birth) as well by long-lasting states of sadness, loneliness and nostalgia.
“Wandering Times” describes this particular state of mind when a person feels forced to “wander” through the life without beeing able to find his/her own place.. The project communicates the sense of alienation, frustration, the futile and hopeless pursuit of an unobtainable goal, but at the same time conveys intimacy and affection.
“Wandering Times” is a story dealing with personal search for a “Home” in the world that obliges one to feel a stanger. Tikhomirova’s approach involves no documentary intention, apart from demonstrating her way of living in the world, made up of feelings of tenderness and love, but also underscored by doubts, fears, isolation and anxiety.
