"IN THE SPACE BETWEEN TIMES"
The idea for the photo project "In the space between the times" did not come by chance. At present, Oxana Guryanova has hardly any opportunity to visit her hometown and her relatives without facing countless obstacles. The pain of losing her father, who passed away suddenly in the fall of 2021, has not subsided — in fact, it has only grown stronger. This is further intensified by the fact that, due to the war, she can no longer travel freely, spontaneously, and without hesitation to her homeland. She cannot fly to embrace her mother and brother. She cannot visit her father’s grave to be with him and speak to him in her thoughts. While all of this is still technically possible in real life, it comes with great effort and emotional burden.
But Oxana found a way. Thanks to photography, which continually opens new doors for her and allows her to transcend boundaries, she managed to reach places that now seem impossible to access in the here and now. New technologies such as remote photography using the Shutter App Studio, as well as traditional methods like using images from family albums and scanning film in a lab, allowed her to "travel" virtually to her hometown. She took a walk through the park where, as a child, she had skinned her knees many times, visited her kindergarten and schoolyard. She admired the winter landscapes of the Volga and revisited the old apartment block where she had spent more than half of her life.
The key word is "virtual." This journey was made possible thanks to the people who, despite the use of the most innovative technologies, remained the central figures in the project. Her friend, with whom Oxana communicated via messenger and discussed each shot in detail, became her right hand and tripod, showing her the current state of her hometown. Her mother photographed old family pictures with her phone, guiding her back to the past — to a time when everyone was alive and healthy, and there was no war.
Oxana still finds herself somewhere between the here and now, between the past and the present. But the pain seems to be fading. Or does it only seem that way?
