Dear readers of my blog!
I’m asking you for a little favor. My “SREDA Creative Lab” now helping the photographer Lera Kardash to work on her first book. The project has no name yet, but there is an idea, material, and statement. The topic is quite delicate, and before continuing working on it, the author is interested in the reaction of a wider audience. This will help her to figure out how to introduce the material. Please, see the photos and write what you feel when you look at them.
Here’s what Lera says about her project:
In my country, people with disabilities belong to a vulnerable segment of the society. It is often not talked about, and, sometimes, even meant to be hidden. In some ways, a pattern thinking society hardly perceives those who differs. When a straight pattern faces a multifaceted reality, it breaks down leaving people in bewilderment.
On the one hand, this project is personal and appeals to those who have met me and know me, on the other hand, this project can appeal to anyone who, for whatever reason, is curious to get a first-hand view.
It is an attempt to establish links between me and the society so as to reduce the gap between the awkwardness that people experience when they learn about the leg and the way I really feel in my body. It is going be shown through shape exploration and lightness of perception.
Preparatory set of pictures for this project:
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Pavel Kosenko 
Absolutely fantastic!
Hello Lera,
The photographs are superb. You have a spectacular talent for such a fine and bold undertaking.
This is a difficult but extraordinary photographic story. You’ve made it a clear story, unsentimental with daily life, sometimes the drama of daily life, loss – and dreams and wishes and enduring fantasies. We can hold the graphic difference in her body and spirit that cannot be separated from who she is – blessed by your creativity and the artistry of your POV perspectives and post processing skills.
I hope Pavel will post the movements forward in it.
My best,
Guy
Sure! Thank you.
Hi Lera,
I think these photographs are wonderful – thank you for sharing them! They are a great starter to a dialogue on this subject. I think the timing is good too. The self-portraits of photographers like Graham MacIndoe (through years of drug addiction) and Laura Hospes (while suicidal in a psychiatric hospital) make this format of very personal narrative feel familiar to me.
I’ve looked at this set a couple of times in last few weeks, and my reactions to the photos have changed each time. The first time, I felt the awkwardness that you write about – particularly the intimacy of the bedroom shots. I found the photos of you on the bathroom scales fascinating (I’m a designer, so I think that’s why I was curious about the weight of your artificial leg…). Now that I’ve seen the set a few times, I’m noticing that the photos of your artificial foot are drawing my eye (the “unnatural” thing in the photograph).
I also see a few other red threads now that guide me through the set: your (wonderful) tattoos and the strong colours of your nail polish.
There seems to be a couple of different styles in the set: fine art, documentary and beauty. Would this affect the readability of the book?
Of course I was wondering how it happened. I read about your terrible accident on your website afterwards. Perhaps knowing about the accident at the start of the set might have affected how awkward I felt …? I think “how” is an important question, and I would be curious to learn what happens if you place the information about the accident at the front, middle or end of the book (or not tell at all). Does the fact that your disability is the result of an accident (rather than a disability from birth) change how readers react to the images?
Hope this is helpful, and thank you once again for sharing.
/Brett