FotoFirst — Lux and Lumen: Varvara Mikushkina Studies Direct and Reflected Light












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.
Keep looking...

The Bible and a Degenerative Eye Condition: Two Defining Factors in Hannah Cooper McCauley’s Life

Joel Stevenett Portrays What Remains of a City Once the Economy Goes Down

Selected Works: Missy Prince

Ten Best #FotoMobile Submissions Vol. 50

The Danube Isn’t Blue — Tommaso Rada Photographs the Romania-Bulgaria Border

FotoWeb — This Week’s Five Best Photography Links

Swell — Jeanne Donegan Captures the Signs of a Woman’s Post Orgasmic State
