Crème de la crème of Russian photography – Katerina Belkina and her Transcendent Self-portraits

From the young age, Katerina Belkina realized her exceptional talent to see the world through different eyes. Born in Samara in the southeast of European Russia, she was brought up in a creative atmosphere by her mother, a visual artist. After finishing high school, she attended the Art Academy to master her painting skills, later studied photography at Photo School of Michael Musorin in Samara. The education gave her creative tools to visualize her ideas and concepts.

After working at numerous positions as designer, art director and a teacher, Katerina decided to focus on her artist career. The unique worldview led her on the creative path of photography.

Belkina’s self-portraits, often described as sublime and mystic, examine the topic of a woman in the post-modern world. Even though at the first glance her characters seem psysically vulnerable and insecure, the steel personality is naturally felt through their skin, expressions, the composition itself.

The artist confesses that her own body and face are the instrument. ’Shooting is akin to a theatrical performance, where an urge to tell the viewer about emotions and feelings manifests itself through the characters in dialogues with the audience.’ ’It has always been fascinating for me to explore the psychology of people’s relationships with each other and with the outside world, to give shape to human emotions. To take joy, despondency, indifference, rapture and jealousy to pieces. Feelings are abstract, therefore it is so interesting to look for and find the form of their visualization.’

Katerina’s works were displayed all around Europe, from the Netherlands to Moscow, and in the US. In 2007 Katerina Belkina was nominated for the prestigious Kandinsky Prize (comparable to the British Turner Prize) in Moscow. Moreover, among others, she won the International Lucas Cranach Award 2015, the prestigious Hasselblad Masters Prize 2016 in the ’Art’ category and, most recently, a prize for the series ’Repast’ at Moscow International Foto Awards this year.