Turkina Faso

0:14Thank you so much for introduction and thank you incise dad for having me.

0:17And I'm so sorry I'm the first one I'm a bit nervous and yes Matt said my name is Turkina Faso but actually it's my artistic name but my real name is too complicated to remember which is Russian so it's Ekaterina sir kina so it doesn't make sense to be a photographer when with the name so and actually it was for me a long journey since I started because I started in 2004 I started as a medical student I went to Academy and I I didn't feel like that I just might just my grandfather wanted me to to become a doctor and yeah. I had no choice so I spent two years there.

0:59And then I turned 18 and they left and they actually left home I left home town they went to Moscow like a property agreement and they I tried to find myself I went to journalism so I am actually in world to journalistic university finished that I graduated as a journalist in art. And I mean during that time during that period I was trying to be photographer because I didn't know what to do I didn't know how to work as a photographer because we didn't have in Moscow at the time like BA or something like that are good short courses even so I was doing just experiments and a lot of mistakes probably so I was doing random things and and I started to photograph my sister and matza her name is Alice and now it's our like kind of common journey through space and time with her she's 8 years old on this picture so I started to to do just random portraits of her because I was back to home. And I didn't know what to photograph so I had her is the grain module as you can see and but still it was just you know kind of nice try to test myself to spend time with her because we have such a big gap I'm 31 and she's 17 she's my best friend now but at that moment I was older I was like you know in university and she was just eight and we had this gap 13 year 14 years. And I didn't know what what can we discuss or how we can spend time together so actually photography became a tool to to keep us together to explain some you know unexplainable things or like I don't know how to actually talk about it. So it's really personal thing so photography became a friendship tool as well so and then I I went to I came to London.

3:12And I finished my Master's here and as a part of my Master's I started a big I began this project about my hometown because it's really funny I didn't feel like a Russian or whatever when I was in Russia obviously and I came here. And I discovered my identity and they discovered that. Actually to take photographs to tell the story I don't need to go somewhere like London I need to go back home and they went home I met Alex again and she was 14 at the time it was the age when I left my hometown so it was that this you know critical moment when I grew up. And I I want you to leave desperately I didn't want to spend time there. And I just wanted to capture to recapture that moment again so and they said yeah let's try to merge my past your present and maybe some future in these pictures so we created this fake family album who he went through you know all the emotions together again I was trying to imagine myself 14 years old or 15 becoming woman or whatever I don't know how was that like it was it was kind of funny and also sad because I realized that. Actually I can't turn time back.

4:30So this work became something personal for me and just visual for people. And I'm really thankful for bicha Jones to British Journal of photography because the editor just said oh I showed him like my pictures like my editorials and stuff I had a lot by the time it was maybe in 2014 and he said you know I actually like this work by the time I had a book already so it's just one picture I obviously didn't put everything into my presentation. But if you go on my website you can click over me and am back home with a list so you can see entire book.

5:09So I showed him this book. And it was a bit shy because I wasn't sure if it's interesting to someone because it's my personal stuff it's my hometown which is in the middle of nowhere sorry I didn't introduce this place so it's like Russian Twin Peaks so nothing happens there it's like North Caucasus which is in south of Russia so it's kind of a beautiful and abundant place nothing changed like nothing changes there. And imagine I left that place 15 years ago I came back. And it's still the same.

5:41So that's why I had a great like opportunity to capture that again to capture my past in 2014 and we were shooting this during a few years like maybe three years or four years yeah and then we started to do different projects together just test editorials even commercials just whatever. And I called it like magical realism because I used really simple things from my my grandmother wardrobe from the basement all stuff for my mom things from secondhand actually we created another book based on the secondhand stuff from the area and that.

6:25But it was really magical because these simple things they they became something else just because of us.

6:33So we we were just playing and enjoying the moment and you know as a photographer I have a lot of commercial jobs I have a tutorials a lot of pressure but this is something that keeps my work and my you know my soul alive I don't know maybe yes it's something for me rarity as well.

6:50So yeah just put some images actually that one on the left it's a collaboration with the sunglasses designer this is from another personal work the left one also the book.

6:59This is a tutorial which shot in Sri Lanka this year.

7:05So we kind of been we don't stop we try to and this year was really important for us because it's we celebrated 10 years together. And we had exhibition like a massive exhibition and France in Vichy which is kind of similar to our hometown because it's also based on mineral water because where I'm from is Co eastern Turkey it's a mineral spring resort like you know what tubes are it I'm sorry my english is still not perfect so I hope you understand what I'm saying so yeah and it was really interesting that they invited us to have this exhibition in Vichy which is like similar to our hometown and it was like 48 photographs and it just finished week ago.

7:55And we could see our pictures in Paris on on this like stations it's that it was so excited because my mom was always like what are you doing can you just relax can you just stop for a second because you need to take this pictures you know during the sunset sunrise whatever. And we was always a hassle so I couldn't rest actually properly and that pictures from the oficial Italia just editorial we've done together because I did her up magazine just asked us to repeat things we were doing and she said I want this model I what the style is and I want you and do you think so and yeah it was kind of excited and now my sister started her own career as a model so she has agency with a representative in Russia and Mystere work together obviously this is also from from the book.

8:46So I will quickly jump back to this book because each picture has a story behind but they never tell them because it's it's kind of like slides from my heart from my past but for you it's just visual content which is also fun because some people look like they they interpret them in different ways so and I obviously have lots of memories in them.

9:13So it's a katryca photography it's a time machine it's like a tool for friendship it's whatever it's like it's it's it's really powerful and I found that for example I can't go back that often to my hometown I obviously can't go back to my teenage I can't meet someone for my family anymore but I can recreate that moment again and again in my photographs and I can enjoy that forever. Basically so thank you you