Maria Kapajeva

Maria Kapajeva uses a self-absented approach to self-portraiture in her project ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman’, using other women with whom she feels an affinity. The connection with most is through their shared experience in moving to another country to fulfil their potential in the arts, be it painting, writing, inventing; often escaping a widely held expectation to put the role of housewife before their career.

Kapajeva aims to show strength and individuality in these women, portraying each in her own working environment to further display their own personal story as an extension of her own. Although photographing other women, Kapajeva is projecting her own feelings about how it feels to be a woman in the world today. The strong, individual women photographed represent who she has enabled herself to become by moving away from her former life.

A work in progress, this fits with many of her past projects focussing on issues around women in society, career and marriage, arranged or otherwise. During a trip to India where marriage is considered very important, Kapajeva was constantly made aware of her single status. Rather than become self-conscious, she created a project, interviewing and photographing young, educated women who had reservations on arranged marriage. Fitting with the country’s tendency to hand paint photographs to make the family appear more affluent, Kapajeva used this technique on her portraits, leaving only the mirror reflection in black and white as a reference to the original image.

The series, ‘Interiors’ focuses on Russian women advertising themselves online for marriage, posing half naked in their homes in a bid to stand out and be noticed. Kapajeva’s manipulation of these images, covering their naked bodies with their own wallpaper promotes the concept that although they are trying hard to stand out, they are merely seen as a part of their domestic landscape, a wife, a mother, a housewife.

Kapajeva used these projects to bring together women of a similar bent, bringing solidarity to women who could otherwise feel isolated in their life choices; I am sure that many women viewing her work will feel that same affinity to Kapajeva and the women she has used in her work.

References:

Kapajeva M, Maria Kapajeva [online]. At http://www.mariakapajeva.com/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-woman/ (accessed 1/9/15)

Boothroyd S. (2014) Maria Kapajeva [online]. At https://photoparley.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/maria-kapajeva/ (accessed 1/9/15)