about. photo. video.
Kirlian photography, digital manipulation
Kirlian photography is a contact-printing analogue method that uses high-voltage electricity to capture images on photographic paper or film.
The resulting "corona discharge" effect creates a mysterious aura around objects, caused by electrically charged air turning into plasma.
Village Flower
remain vivid, resurfacing through ordinary items that quietly act as portals to place, ritual, and belonging.
My Karelian identity was shaped by sensory experience: school camp trips into vast forests; visits to my grandparents’ village; weaving wildflower wreaths during brief northern summers (often unsuccessfully); searching for
spare rubles to buy colorful chewing gum at a nearby bazaar; drinking strong black tea with fresh lemon (never milk); and preparing Olivier salad with excessive onion and potato for New Year’s celebrations.
Using Kirlian photography, I investigate the intangible dimension of these material traces. By capturing corona discharge, the luminous glow produced by high-voltage currents, I treat the phenomenon as metaphor rather
than mysticism. The corona becomes a visual language for what cannot be directly photographed: emotional residue, inherited gestures, and cultural continuity. I do not seek to document objects, but to reveal the glow of
memory they carry - the enduring presence of Karelia that continues to radiate within me.
Two Rubles
Apple Tree
Lemon
Onions
Kitchen Utensils