• Did you imagine who you will be when you grew up?

• That’s most strange, but I didn’t imagine this. My childhood passed under the sign of the present moment – I was inert, I did not look ahead or want anything. I could not imagine, had no plans. But I remember very well the day when everything was different. It happened in the eighth grade. Once I was lying on a cot and looking at the passing clouds. And suddenly I realized that I looked like this cloud — I was drifting just in an unknown direction. Then I decided that I wanted to be a gold medalist, the chief editor of the school newspaper and write a scientific paper.  I did all this. After that, I became acutely aware of many things. I never imagined who I would be and who I wanted to be. The truth is that, I still don’t have this idea.

• I always thought you were one of those people who make things happen. 

• In terms of taking photos, this is actually the case! I’m really very intuitive person, but I am stickler for detail on the set. After all, the more detailed and robust your plan is, the steeper will be a surprise. Taking photos is never exactly the same as you planned it. But if you carefully prepare everything, think out every detail, there is always some synergy, some kind of reversal of reality, because of what the result of the work can surprise.

• Your work, your style is absolutely recognizable. What should be the photo for you to say “this is the picture I want!”?

• I always strive to give a new, “other” sense. The sense that you couldn’t imagine. It is akin to what you experience in a dream when the attributes of the surrounding pictures are familiar, but the point of sense is different. This is what I expect from every job, although this moment rarely happens. This usually happens when you take a risk, when there is a breakdown in what you’re doing.

• Your style is a magical realism, played in the usual scenery, but always with a deep required and necessary imperfection. Where did you get this appetite for the wrong, distorted things?

• We always evince ourselves. I like that the experience and time bring honesty, when you don’t pretend and don’t try to hide, and you see only what you want, only what is yours. This honesty at work is the evince of yourself.  I should think that this was determined in childhood. I have been an ugly girl for a long time, too tall and too thin. It always seemed to me that my mother didn’t think I was pretty enough to play the role of her daughter, which, of course, was complete nonsense. But then I thought so. And this weakness and sensitivity were a very strong starting point, and it remained with me forever. Inside, I still remain this confused, a little cowered child. This desire to overcome my discomfort is commensurate with my personal growth, this is what propels me forward. Apparently, this is somehow represented in the work. I often find myself thinking that while everything is perfect on the set, while the girl works for the camera and thinks that she copes with her work, I’m not satisfied. As soon as the work is stumbled and you see this breakdown, this a blind spot, when something breaks down, then something real, genuine is shown, and the photo is succeeded. My tragedy is that almost every time after the taking photos I feel a kind of regret that the magic, moment of film and moment of sleep did not happen. 

• How does this disposition toward the breakdown get on with the sacred monster of Vogue?

• My story in Vogue is the story of personal discomfort. All my life I push my way out of the comfort zone, so there is no logical contradiction in my participation in Vogue. For the time being, I am in the training stage and Vogue is, of course, a big school. 

• How do you formulate the Vogue standard?

• For me, true Vogue is everything that is inapplicable to reality and very far from it.  All that Vogue means comes from the world of fantasy and irreality, but with the obligatory note that it is a luxury. Although what luxury means? This is only a lucky ticket, an opportunity to break away from reality, own, play, have more choices. If I get rich once, I know that it will be an opportunity to let this unreal reality into my life, create new worlds.

• Does this world have a place in that physical world of “here and now” in which we live?

• This is getting less, because it is not opportunistic. Previously, people managed to convert fantasies and the world of fairy tales into real things. Now we have stopped using a myth. We use very simple things. What is the reason for this? Probably, we have a poorer soul. An era of romance has passed and a contemporary art is a very strong indicator of realities we live in. Art and fashion are speculative.

• What the modern fashion means?

• I am sad to say, modern fashion is about fashion. It repeats itself endlessly, as if there is nothing to talk about, although there is something to talk about.  And this dissonance is caused by the loss of a fairy tale and myth. In fact, we can talk about many things – we live in not the worst time and we have a lot to tell about. But the market rules that we are all forced to play by now, exclude the myths. Only the most privileged people use it from time to time. For some reason, fashion has ceased to live with music, be nostalgic about the music of the past, but rather interested in the music of the present. It has ceased to feel deeply the problems of women and men. Fashion avoids the themes of revolution and war, although I believe that we should talk about it. Unfortunately, 40-50 years from now, someone looks at the our fashion of that years, it will be difficult for him to put together an idea of the era we were experiencing.

• We are now glorifying a return to realism and a passion for the lives of real people. 

• It seems to me that a large part of the audience does not know that fashion magazines are trying to somehow evince their reality. I meet a lot of people who are not at all aware of what is happening in fashion, although these are the ones to whom it appeals and talks about.  To some extent, such a microscopic representation of reality takes place. But often these are very superficial, fleeting observations.

• Should fashion respond to a person’s life?

• Fashion is obliged to respond to what is happening. Then it’s alive, vibrating and you get high from her. Then it makes sense. The form and manner in which fashion should socially reflect – these are separate questions. Of course, this should be very subtle and competent.  But so subtly to hit the target, touch the minds, influence.

• Do you think about your audience, about the consumer of your product?

• I have no internal observers for what I do. It’s like an orgasm: it happens or not and it is extremely difficult and senseless to try to describe these emotions and colors. This is always my personal story and I admit the idea that this position is wrong on the market, but I don’t know how to do it differently.  Although I can not say that I do my work entirely for myself. 

• Is your work female and feminine?

• Not completely. I like a woman, but I always want to give her more power. Probably because my picture is my continuation, and I never cultivated fragility and weakness. But with age, I begin to see the beauty just in this. So, perhaps in the future, a woman will not be as strong as before when taking photos. Now I want to try a new approach – when you show something so fragile that it will evaporate now. And that’s where I see the power. 

• This motive of strength and weakness – it is, in fact, very Slavic. 

• We consist of this. I used to be even angry and it seemed to me that we are very unhappy that we grew up in such a miserable cultural climate. Because the “sovok” in terms of culture is completely de-energized. We are not able to think in the category of pure, absolute beauty – this concept of beauty is too difficult for us. Instead, everyone has lead in itself. I feel this in myself and around our way. We live with this unwieldiness, it is a component of us and many Europeans believe that it is cool. After all, they need to make an effort to achieve such a consistency and seriousness, and this has already been given to us. Unfortunately, only in dialogue with other people you begin to feel and appreciate this feature of ours, this predestination to the ugly, this insatiable “hunger”.

• And what satisfies your personal “hunger”?

• The only thing that keeps me – this is the magic moment that happens when making photos. When you lived with something for a long time, wrapped mind around a certain number of pictures, music for months and years, then put it into rebuses and tried to convey your idea to others and present it on the set. And when on the monitor you see a picture that thrills you now, in this second – this is the fleeting moment I live for.  That’s my drug of choice.

• Do you imagine the moment when you can refuse it?

• For some reason I decided that I would definitely do it. I don’t want to be a stylist for the rest of my life. Does that mean I’ll stop working with visualization? I’m not sure. It’s difficult for me to imagine my life without it. But I will leave this job, and I know exactly when and where. At that moment when I first realized this, I felt very happy. I thought: “this is my way out, this is my other door!” 

• When that moment comes, what do you say to yourself?

• I don’t know. But I’m sure I’ll smile.