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Portrait of Almaty. Photo album dedicated to the people and place of my hometown in Kazakhstan. February 2024. Film Photo on ilford hp plus, craft album 210*297

This photo album is my my love letter to Almaty, which is my home, and the people of the community in it are my anchor. I've decided to create a situation that would allow me to make my life meaningful and purposeful. Here, in a safe space, I mark my presence as a subject, detached from events and people with the click of a shutter. Roland Barthes rightly noted that "only surveillance cameras objectively and indifferently capture." At the moment, the photos in the album can be described as a "portrait of Almaty," because for me, the city is primarily the people who infuse it with life energy, create, and make sense of it through their actions. Places and nature are interludes between acts; they are as important as the people who inhabit them.I try to anticipate the upcoming outbreaks of celebration, joy, or tenderness. I am most intrigued by moments shared by large groups of actors united by a common idea or values.