FotoFirst — Lux and Lumen: Varvara Mikushkina Studies Direct and Reflected Light
![Lux and Lumen © Varvara Mikushkina](https://fotoroom.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/lux-lumen-varvara-mikushkina-10.jpg)
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Ciao Varvara, how are you?
I am doing well, trying to balance life, making work and surviving in general.
What is photography for you?
Photography is many things. I have been making photographs for a long time and I think that photography changes according to how I relate myself to the outside world. I use it to facilitate how I experience my environment and of course to document my life.
What is Lux and Lumen about?
Lux and Lumen is about the false-ness of images. The title refers to the terms for direct light and reflected light. Also, “lux” is a play on luxury, and the focus on the false value we place on certain objects of fashion or desire. I was highly influenced by the palette and aesthetics of an old Soviet TV show and I wanted to push the idea between a real or an imagined narrative. Aesthetically there is a play between the objects and their reflective materiality as they are bathed in this “nostalgic light”. I was interested in how that type of hallucinatory cast can be expanded upon to influence the perception of the subject matter. The make-shift still lifes, landscapes and portraits don’t offer any answers and I enjoy this ambiguity within the series.
Where can you be found online?
At my website and on Instagram.
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