Irina Balandina: A Visual Storyteller Through the Lens of a Photographer

“Recently, there has been an increasing tendency for women to lose their natural qualities. Women used to be much closer to nature and considered themselves its continuation. Now we are strongly detached from it.

A woman is the Universe in miniature, and within this universe there are all 4 elements: earth, fire, air, water. Each element carries a real image and character traits, characteristics and abilities to act. Tenderness, elegance, naturalness, grace, weakness, emotionality, intelligence - these qualities in a woman symbolize such energies as water and air. Persistence, pride, independence, passion, wisdom, care are the symbolic energies of earth and fire. When a woman skillfully uses resources of all elements, it makes her fulfilled and harmonious, which helps her to be different.

This is exactly what I try to show through my photographs, and primarily to all the women myself, whom I photograph.

Vanity and care, often the injustice and cruelty of modern days, is why women put on “armor” (both body and soul), which protects it from the blows of the outside world. Therefore, most of my projects consist of two parts. In the second part, the images of the characters are always composed so that the visual contours of the graceful lines of the woman’s body help to remember her sensual side of herself. After all, no matter how old a woman is, she always wants to see the admiring glances of men, to feel the protection and tender care of her loved one.

For centuries, artists and poets have been praising the image of the Beautiful Lady, whose beauty is perfect: both external charm and inner fullness.

“And every evening, at the appointed hour

(Or am I just dreaming?),

The girl’s figure, captured by silks,

It moves in the foggy window.”

A.Blok.

The writings of this Russian poet help me to generate ideas for photographic projects, and I often find visual images in the paintings of Pre-Raphaelite artists. Taking their works as a basis, I try to understand how they would reveal the beauty and harmony of the female image in our time.

I also try to find a balance of color, light and form in my work. If the heroine of the project is a young girl, the image I create for her can be more courageous, I would even say more daring, than in works with older women. In terms of color it can be brighter, more active, there is a little more fire in it, and in form it can be more open, there is more movement and sharpness. In photographs with older women, I usually mute the color scheme. Smoother images predominate here.

Although sometimes I also like to be mischievous in my works in order to raise the interest of my subscribers and provoke them into dialogue.

During the photography process, you have to communicate a lot with the model. Young girls are quicker to reveal their emotional aspects, but the elder women are sometimes more difficult to deal with. For many of them, their emotions, their feelings are like stripping naked in public: what if they don’t understand, they laugh at you, or even scold them...

Keeping the camera in my hands, I start communicating with them, directing them to a memory, depending on the concept of the shot, pleasant or not particularly nice. And so, step by step, I get out of them the emotion I want and press the shutter of the camera. That’s why I love to focus on the eyes, because it’s in them that feelings come to life first.

Very often I meet the models for my works in everyday life. For example, I met Natalia, the heroine of the project submitted for publication in your magazine, in a hospital. She is an orthopedic traumatologist. At work - she is a “Snow Queen”. Businesslike, articulate, fast-paced. After asking her a few leading questions, I realized that there are so many feelings, emotions, tenderness and warmth hidden inside this businesswoman that the idea of the project was immediately born in my head, and I invited her for a photo session. Initially the project was planned to be performed in the outdoor, but the weather in St. Petersburg is fickle and we had to make adjustments. However, they did not prevent the idea from coming to life.

I have been involved in photography all my conscious life - for as long as I can remember, I have always been with dogs and a camera. Both of these activities help me to communicate more actively with other people, to get to know them, to make new friends. Some of them are people of different generations - both very young and very old. They pass on their real-world experience and wisdom to me, while others help me navigate the new realities of life and they aren’t afraid of change and experimentation”.