- Sep 3

Olha Stepanian

Olha Stepanian is a black and white photographer who has exhibited in Europe in Ukraine, Italy, and Germany, as well as the United States. Cities which she has been featured include Milan, Munich, and New York City. She has also exhibited locally in her hometown of Cherkassy, Ukraine twice. Olha was completely self-taught as a photographer and she starts off with sketches of concepts for her theatrical photography. Sometimes years will pass by before a concept becomes a finished piece. The audience should note that none of Olha’s photography uses photoshop or other means of photographic alteration.

With a sense of contemporary mythology, Olha invents characters through actors who convey portrayals of titans such as Atlas, refined ladies-in-waiting, and figures wearing aged attire from the early 20th century. Using unusual abstracted circular props, the figures interact with objects as if to convey a human relationship with design principles.

Often well dressed or nude, Olha’s figures convey quiet focus on their mundane tasks, often looking away from the camera as if they were not aware of being photographed. Usually frozen and static, the figures seem fixed into place like objects or props themselves. Ranging from absurd to poetic, the actors engage in tasks which may seem contradictory to rational thought, such as sitting in a lake of water with a fully-attired suit. The settings of the photography remain quite interesting and usually take place in either remote deserts or desolate piers and sometimes occurring in minimal interiors. These locations speak for themselves as forms of artistic expression, captured in the black and white photography as almost monochromatic planes of structure.

Moon Birth 1 (pictured above) comes off like a reverse version of Lady X by John Singer Sargeant. The figure embraces herself out in the helpless, unforgiving desert in full dated, formal dress attire with her back turned to the viewer. She embraces herself with a standard upon her head, a crescent as if to convey the moonlight as an aesthetic. The picture reflects the concept of incoming twilight with the figure in contemplation with herself, embracing her own physical form.

Olha Stepanian’s photography remains similar in configuration to a folk singer or poet with imagery of lyrical, mysterious metaphor. Her work can be described as a statement about puristic contemporary aesthetics, hence the black and white photography and focused compositions on actors engaging in seemingly ironic acts. With a sense of sophistication and depth of field, the photography captures monochromatic perspective landscapes and the fascinating, peculiar characters which engage within her compositions.