Ms. Porodina, I noticed that you often use the term performance when describing the process of your photography. Why is that?
Yes, that’s because to me, it’s the most authentic description of what I have encountered during the shoot, because when I collaborate with a model or an actor or a dancer, it’s never about them executing a certain pose that I had in mind for them. I never give a description of what they have to do. It’s much more loose. It’s a collaboration, a very, very open idea, it’s their reaction to the narrative or story that I tell them. They interpret it in their movement, their expression, and I'm just catching them in the moment.
A model recently described her work with you as “meeting a version of herself she hadn’t met before.”
Yes, I hope that that is how all of my shoots go! Humans are always changing and evolving and transforming, they are incredibly complex in their expression of personality. It’s almost like a crystallized Rubik's cube that keeps moving and changing and switching up, and it's never a perfect shape, but an intricate one that is really imperfect. This dissonance is what interests me. I always want to take the shape and turn it to the light in a way that the model hasn't experienced before. I want them to be in this territory of unknown, and that will feel almost unreal or magic, like they've opened a new door. It’s never been interesting to me to just reflect my ideas, that’s the whole reason I came to be a photographer rather than a painter because I was tired of being alone with myself.
“It’s not my ego that is in the center, it’s the idea. I want to keep the idea pure, pristine, and I want the execution to be exactly right for the idea.”
It seems incredibly collaborative. Does that mean that people like the stylists and make-up artists and set designers are also part of the performance?
I choose to believe that they are. I try to involve everyone as much as possible to have a meaningful stretch towards an idea. It’s not my ego that is in the center, it’s the idea. I want to keep the idea pure, pristine, and I want the execution to be exactly right for the idea. Everyone contributes to that, I think.
Does the performance end when the photo is finally complete and on display somewhere?
I actually think that the part where the images are finished and they communicate with the audience, that is a performance as well. Especially with social media and stuff like that, people can react to the photo, and that kind of performance happens everywhere, all the time. People use art to position themselves as people, as intellectuals, they define themselves as humans by using works of art to say what they like and what they don't like.
On Instagram, you almost always ask your followers to give their reaction to your work, to choose which image speaks to them the most. Why is that so important for you?
I’ve always wanted to communicate with people in the most authentic way. I've always been a bit short with words, or not eloquent enough when I wanted to express something specific. When I started painting and drawing many years ago, I noticed that it would create a sort of energy bubble that would draw people in, and this is where I could have a conversation. People would tell me stories or they would see themselves reflected in the work, or it would remind them of something. I remember thinking, “Wow, that's the stuff that that we're made of. That is what I want to access.” And that's why I continued making art. So I love to ask, “What does this make you think of?” because I think can already provoke a conversation, or can help someone access a biographical detail, or a reminder of something.
How did you end up transitioning from drawing and painting, to the kind of ethereal, surrealist photos you make now? Did your style evolve naturally from your art?
Yeah, I think that that's exactly what happened. I get asked a lot whether my style is something that I've been working on, or something that I kind of like created. But to me, it felt like this style is something that has always existed, and I've been only peeling away at it and revealing it more and more. Because the images drew when I was four or five, the choice of colors, the choice of subjects… It was always this magical realism and surrealism. I was always focused on subjects that present themselves in a very feminine way. The colors were vibrant and complex. There is a core that is there. And now with my photography, I try to change things up as much as possible, but leave the things that feel essential to me — so I end up coming to the same results. I think that's what other people see as my signature.
You’ve previously mentioned certain archetypes that feature in your work; heroine, mother, god, shadow, harlequin… Are they the core elements that you mentioned?
Early on in my photography, I would discover a character that I would meet again and again, so I would define them as my archetypes. I would see this character in someone, then years later, the same character would pop up in an entirely different person, in an entirely different situation. I loved recognizing that pattern. I call them archetypes, because it is very similar to the Jungian idea of the archetype. I don’t have a rulebook about portraying them or finding them, but I do recognize them, almost like from a Rorschach blot, in my own images. I don't think that there’s a tarot card deck, where I'm saying, “Okay, let’s get your harlequin to come up.” I think that everyone has their own unique card deck, and that's the the joy in putting people in unexpected situations: I can communicate with their subconscious and whatever comes out in that moment.
Do you ever see yourself in your photos?
All the time. My work is always equally a self portrait as it is a portrait of that person. I always infuse myself into it through direction, the way how I see things… It’s sort of inevitable because I can’t surgically operate myself out of it. Sometimes I see myself just in the way that a person moved, or sometimes in the final curation or edit, sometimes it’s in how I choose a specific photo. Sometimes it happens that I send a photo to my mom, and she will be like, “Is that you?” (Laughs) Because there’s been such a strong moment of connection between me and the subject.
How does it feel to see yourself reflected sometimes in the photos that you take?
Oh, it’s always good, it’s always a positive feeling, because my pictures are the result of an obsession with doing this work, being immersed in this work. They reflect my own transformation. So it is always a positive, meaningful, purposeful thing to see that, even if sometimes I see myself in an uncomfortable situation, or it’s an unflattering reflection. I only care that it was seen, and it was translated and captured in the photo. That's that's really all I need.