Viktoria Sorochinski: Anna & Eve - Tapa dura

Viktoria Sorochinski left the former USSR with her parents in 1990 at the age of 11. After living in Israel, she continued her studies of Fine Arts in Montreal, and then in New York where she currently lives. It was in Montreal in 2005 that she began to photograph a little girl, then aged 3 and her mother, 23, also Ukranian, just like Viktoria. Today she still pursues this subtle work of observation and interpretation, by capturing the stages of Eve's evolution and of her relationship with Anna. Central to this story are the themes of childhood and their corollary of fantasies, fears and the "learning" of motherhood.
Drawing on myths, folk tales and popular beliefs, interspersed with a child's perceptions of right and wrong, Viktoria portrays Eve's fantasy world, and her complex and intense relationship with her mother, in impeccably staged images full of a disquieting magic. The personality and presence of little Eve haunt every image. In front of the camera, a strange role-play takes place between the two protagonists as well as between them and the photographer. Behind the fiction, we perceive the real tension, Anna's fragility and Eve's determination. Like Alice in Disenchanted Land, little but highly intelligent Eve seems to be finally holding the strings of their balance and of the story itself. Viktoria, the watchful accomplice, sees and prefigures, making a secret universe of signs and visions manifest. Captivated by these perfect images, where no detail is left to chance, engulfed by disturbing mysteries as well as a sense of wonder, the viewer is quickly lost, as in a game of mirrors.

Viktoria Sorochinski's work as an artist-photographer has always been strongly connected to people. She is interested in the psychological aspects that we all share and are forced to face - simply because we are human beings. Strengths, weaknesses, conflicts, fears, pathologies, unresolved issues of relationships with each other - all these aspects of humanity have been the subject of her visual and conceptual exploration for some time. Anna & Eve is her first monograph. It appears at the start of a big solo exhibition of Anna & Eve in Stimultania (Strasbourg, France).

Design: MV LevievanderMeer, Amsterdam

Viktoria Sorochinski Anna & Eve Viktoria Sorochinski left the former USSR with her parents in 1990 at the age of 11. After living in Israel, she continued her studies of Fine Arts in Montreal, and then in New York where she currently lives. It was in Montreal in 2005 that she began to photograph a little girl, then aged 3 and her mother, 23, also Ukranian, just like Viktoria. Today she still pursues this subtle work of observation and interpretation, by capturing the stages of Eves evolution and of her relationship with Anna. Central to this story are the themes of childhood and their corollary of fantasies, fears and the learning of motherhood. Drawing on myths, folk tales and popular beliefs, interspersed with a childs perceptions of right and wrong, Viktoria portrays Eves fantasy world, and her complex and intense relationship with her mother, in impeccably staged images full of a disquieting magic. The personality and presence of little Eve haunt every image. In front of the camera, a strange role-play takes place between the two protagonists as well as between them and the photographer. Behind the fiction, we perceive the real tension, Annas fragility and Eves determination. Like Alice in Disenchanted Land, little but highly intelligent Eve seems to be finally holding the strings of their balance and of the story itself. Viktoria, the watchful accomplice, sees and prefigures, making a secret universe of signs and visions manifest. Captivated by these perfect images, where no detail is left to chance, engulfed by disturbing mysteries as well as a sense of wonder, the viewer is quickly lost, as in a game of mirrors.