Yola Monakhov
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
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Work from Once Out of Nature.
“My work deals with human drama from the point of view of its minor players. I photograph people, landscapes, architecture, parks, animals, and streets – locales and actors animated by difficult desires, comforts and resentments, spiritual longing, promises of amends, and a feeling of exile. I approach my subjects as if an astute visitor to my own time and place. I search for metaphor, and sustain belief in the transcendent possibilities of truthful description.
I work primarily with large- and medium-format cameras, but deploy a variety of tools.In recent years, I rediscovered the pleasure of the black and white darkroom and launched a portraiture, architecture, and street photography project in Manhattan, inspired by thework of Atget in Paris and Helen Levitt in 1930’s New York. This undertaking, called “Empire Pictures,” has since grown into a mission to photograph the entire State of New York. In those corners, especially, that conceal a faded glory and unheralded populations, I wish to find dignity, formality and relevance..” – Yola Monakhov via Conscientious