Kseniya Vaschenko

St. Petersburg, Russia
Bio:

An elusive, barely perceptible scent of the freedom of the persona in a surrealistic manner is present in Kseniya Vaschenko’s work. The acquaintance with the character dissolves in a fog of the day-to-day and comes in a surprising demand to awake one’s feelings.

The delicate yet powerful way to present sexuality touches on the thin line between the real and surreal worlds. The merge of the mediums, the technical aspect of work with light, the manual post-production of the photographs proposes a distinct, personal perception easily recognized as Kseniya’s visual voice.

Kseniya Vaschenko is a photographer originally from Siberia, currently living and working in Saint Petersburg. Kseniya came a long way from studying towards a Law Degree in Tyumen, working as a wedding photographer towards pursuing her dream: moving to Saint Petersburg, and starting her career as a fashion photographer.

Where are you from and where are you based now? Could you tell us a little about both?

I am from a small town in the south of Siberia in the Tyumen region. I was born and educated there. Five years ago I decided to move to St. Petersburg. Now I live and work in St. Petersburg and in Moscow. I love both cities, each with its own energy and resources.

What’s your earliest and impactful memory behind the camera?

I’ve been familiar with photography since childhood thanks to my father. My very first interest came when I was a child. I loved to take self-portraits at home when no one was around. I often dressed up in my mom’s uniform, took my dad’s camera, put it on a timer, and posed against the backdrop of Soviet curtains.

How does your environment influenced you?

Since childhood, because of my family circumstances, I have learned to abstract from my environment: people, atmosphere; completely immersing myself and shaping my inner world. I can let a lot go through me, but leave for myself only the most necessary and exciting things. This is how different people, circumstances, and cities have passed through me.

My environment does not affect me much; but it is great when my environment can bestow me with emotions and feelings, events that I will cherish.

In what ways are you pursuing to help yourself in these times?

If my surroundings and environment begin to violate my healthy boundaries, I feel pressure, it’s hard to breathe. I become uncomfortable. There are two ways: 1) I can get even more immersed in my inner world, a form of escapism for me, a escape from reality; I start to do more creative work. I try to concentrate. 2) If this doesn’t help, I let the situation go. Time and experience put everything in its place. I stop struggling and start

being friends and looking for the advantages.

What fulfils you the most?

Feeling the fullness and depth of my activities. Not challenging myself, but satisfying the natural needs of creativity and work. It’s like for someone to listen to their favorite music, to meet their loved ones, to have sex, to eat, and so on.  But more often I like the ongoing hunger for creativity.

I have this feeling from your work of impalpability and severity that combined with the dynamism of the lines become full Erotica. Could you tell 

me more about your relationship with the Body? and the Space?

I adore human body. of all sizes and shapes It’s a huge philosophical layer for me. As trite as it may sound, I use the physics of the body as a tool, reinforcing it with spiritual and sensual content. I love eroticism and intimacy in art and in life, it’s very romantic to me, I feel everything on an energetic level . Direct eroticism is not interesting to me, it’s boring, it’s vulgar and devoid of taste and intelligence. I have a slightly perverted intellect; it used to bother me; now I’ve accepted it; I enjoy it. Now I want to explore it as far and as deep as I can go.

I like to see the human body outside of its physical shell. The body in the interior. The body in nature as a full-fledged object, an object. Just as the object and nature are part of the physics of the body. It all merges into a whole for me

Tell us more about your method and process of manipulating images

I use  digital camera. I absolutely love to shoot fast and a lot, subtly, elusively; I rarely build up the frame, I’m lazy. However if I want to adjust it a bit and I see that it will take me more than 5 minutes, I’m not doing it I just don’t feel interested.

I print and scan all the photos. This is quite a big technical area; it requires certain knowledge and skills. It’s challenging and energy consuming, but it’s a marvelous meditation process for me. I love touching images. I love the smell of paint. A purely technical pleasure.

Have you any thoughts or obsessions in terms of life and Creation?

I believe I have one obsessive big thought is that at this moment in my life – I cannot  shoot.I have something to say, I have an interest and it makes me happy, I travel in my imagination.  I know it won’t always be like this: that someday there will be a moment and maybe I’ll stop doing it.But at the moment, I’m a fan of what I am doing , but without fanaticism. I don’t hold on to photography, and I don’t live for it.

What’s next? Are you planning to work on something special or a particular series you would love to see come to life?

I’m not the kind of person who plans everything ,I chose to go with the flow. In the future I am eager to experiment with form and body, while combining this with complex themes, eroticism, sensual content, I wonder where everything will lead.  This curiosity fuels my excitement and interest.

Where can we find you online?

Instagram 

Tumblr

 

Words: Nicole Oike