TANIA LESHKINA - LONDON. UK.

27 OCTOBER 2009

Written by ALEXANDER CONNER

    Tania Leshkina (a Moscow native) escorts her viewers into a world of silence and self-revelation almost unparalleled by any other contemporary photographer. In her work, there is a deafening sense of finding where she fits into a world outside herself. Through her often-stark settings and straight-forward camera positioning, she is able to make the viewer question her actions and her awareness of consequences, if any.

Many of her current photographs use herself as the primary actor. In interviews she has given, she has stated that the self-portrait is a particularly feminine endeavor. However, her work never once has a whiff of identity politics. Many images border between photographs for her profile on a social-networking site and such vulnerable insights into herself she not dare ever show anyone else. Luckily, she does.

While keeping the camera at a distance, a foreign world seems to open up within her actions. This world screams of discrepancy with the one we know exists outside the camera’s lens, but somehow, seems to fit perfectly beside it. We might ask ourselves if Ms. Leshkina wishes to gently mislead us against exploring this juxtaposition too deeply, if only she didn’t announce it so loudly.

Her use of light (especially in her outdoor photographs) imbues a sense of wonder and fantasy into this world. One must wonder if the phrase “light as a feather, stiff as a board” was invented primarily to describe her transcendent style of photography. Many times I find myself wanting to launch into her photographs if only to make sure that the world I’m living in is still as real as I believe.

Oh yeah, and she’s only 19.

http://leshkina.com/