Photographer from Russia takes monochrome photos, turning ballerinas into flowers

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The multifaceted and amazing, wonderful world of such theatrical art as ballet cannot leave anyone indifferent. The skill of a photographer is also a special kind of art. Real creativity has no boundaries and frameworks; a huge field for research is open here. Julia Artemyeva is a talented photographer who loves to experiment. One of such creative experiments was her extraordinary photo project “Flowers and Ballerinas”. Take a look at amazing atmospheric shots, where a graceful and graceful ballerina is so incredibly similar to a delicate flower with all its fragility and such fleeting beauty.

After all, the truth is, with what else can you compare the amazing beauty of ballet dance, as soon as with the delicate beauty of a blooming flower. In this magical photo project, the role of the model was played by the ballerina Marina Mastyka.

If we were asked to define the very concept of beauty, these photographs would certainly be a great example. These shots show all the incredible grace of the graceful ballerina compared to the natural perfection of colors. The dancer's gestures and the process of flowering flowers are what Yulia Artemyeva skillfully combined in the pictures of this incredibly beautiful photo shoot.

Julia is a famous photographer from Nizhny Novgorod, a recognized master of art photography. She is mainly engaged in children's and family photography. Her work is exhibited in thirty-five countries around the world. Yulia Artemieva is the owner of more than sixty awards at the most prestigious and professional international competitions. Julia's photographs do not just capture one moment of our fleeting life, they draw our attention to the meaning of being itself, raising the captured event to a certain philosophical level.

In her photo session Flowers and Ballerinas, the photographer shows us how the transitory art of ballet turns into a flower symbol, gaining eternal life, endlessly dying and reborn in a new image.

Let's tell the truth, ballet is a specific art. Famous scientists conquer nature with technology, artificial inventions, while dancers challenge it with their own bodies. Every day of their lives is a hard work on themselves, a struggle against gravity and external imperfections. They twist their joints, stretch and strengthen their muscles, and finally stand on pointe shoes. These people imitate the elements of nature and take them under their absolute control.

Photographs by Yulia Artemyeva illustrate how the dancer's pirouettes are translated into the language of flowers. These shots reflect the photographer's original take on the popular comparison. Since ancient times, famous artists have been looking for a way to convey the ephemeral art of ballet dance. The analogy of the airy dance of a ballerina with the delicate fragility of a flower is very popular today.

Photos from the “Flowers and Ballerinas” series were made in black and white, which gave the silhouette of the ballerina and the flower a special expressiveness and significance. Each shot is a special, even loving, juxtaposition of the dancer's movements and the shape of a flower, a reflection of the dance's mood.

Here calla is a graceful splash, cornflower is smooth sliding, a rose is like a languid bow, and iris is an airy fouette. The comparisons are chosen so precisely that they are striking in their brevity and well-defined details. The two worlds unite into one: the ballerina leaves the world of dance and turns into a delicate flower.

The photographer, answering the question of how it occurred to her to compare the grace of a ballerina's gestures and the beauty of flowers, said: “The duration of a ballerina's career is short, like the life of a flower. Do you know at what age ballerinas retire in Russia? 38 years! Women's beauty is also not eternal, like the life of a flower. There are many allegories here. This is a constant comparison. This is the fragility of a flower, beauty, career and graceful ballerina."

The series of photographs consists of only 13 black and white images, but they all carry a strong visual message and make us stop, pay attention to the details and the similarities between them. “At the beginning, the project consisted of nine photographs. After a year, I decided to add four more. As a result, thirteen photographs were submitted to the exhibition of this photo project,”says the photographer. Each pair of photographs compares the image of the shape of the flower and the gesture of the ballerina copying it. The project has existed for four years.

Everything was filmed in the hometown of Yulia Artemyeva - Nizhny Novgorod. The heroine of the project is the ballerina of the Opera and Ballet Theater, Marina Mastyka. Julia tells how this idea was born: “Ballet is a huge part of my life. I danced ballet throughout my childhood and adolescence. With this project, I have lived this part of my life anew. He became a kind of therapy for me, he closed the Gestalt. So the inspiration came from the memories of the past."

“When I first saw Marina, I immediately realized that she should be the heroine of this project! She was small, fragile, thin … only this ballerina can be compared to a fragile flower! " - explains Artemieva, - “Her airy ballet dresses miraculously resemble flower petals, and her mesmerizing movements depict their actual shape. Marina's hands are so flexible and graceful, graceful movements imitate a flower."

Comparison of women with flowers is a fairly common motive in European and Asian cultures. We can find this allegory in poetry, books, paintings and other areas of art. Even the famous writer William Shakespeare, who lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, discovered the similarities between women and flowers, describing in a special way the fragility of their sexuality.

The art of photography allows us to see and appreciate not only the beauty of a particular moment, but also to stop for a while, to rethink something in our life. Read our article on how a fashion photographer from London creates sophisticated photographs of earthly goddesses: magical illusions through the lens of Bella Kotak.